Home Run
by jadedandboring
Summary: All Human - Bella is a sports writer living & working in DC. Edward works for the baseball team she covers on her sports beat. Chance meeting, tossed together for work. M for language & future lemons.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **I hope it doesn't suck. Let me know what you think. This chapter was beta'd by Project Team Beta, but I would like to find a beta that I can converse with directly. The 5 day wait might kill me. If you're interested, please let me know.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Twilight or these characters, SM does. What I do own is an unhealthy obsession with all things baseball.

* * *

My face was on fire, there was no doubting that. In my haste to make the train, I'd run into a complete stranger. Even better, I'd dragged him down to the ground with me in an attempt to get away without harming either one of us. Now my belongings were scattered across the platform and the ridiculously beautiful man I'd run into was standing over me, holding out his hand.

"Can I help you up?" _Shit, even his voice is beautiful._

I shook my head, mortified, as I started scrambling around on the ground in a sad attempt to gather my things before another train came through and blew them everywhere.

When he realized that I wasn't going to let him help me off of the ground, the Beautiful Stranger knelt down and started gathering up some of my paperwork. I watched as his eyes flitted across the documents, growing wide. "You're a sports writer?"

My voice stuck in my throat when I tried to answer him, so I just nodded.

"Wow, that's pretty fantastic." The Beautiful Stranger was smiling at me, attempting to make me feel better about this ridiculous situation, I assumed. He held his hand out to me again and this time I let him help me up.

"Thanks," I mumbled, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm so sorry. Such a fucking klutz…." I heard him chuckle and realized I'd said the last part out loud. My face flushed an even darker shade of scarlet.

We gathered the rest of my papers in silence and I gave an audible sigh of relief as the train approached.

"No need to be embarrassed. Accidents happen," Beautiful Stranger told me. His green eyes were dancing with amusement as he ran a hand through his hair. It was a unique bronze color, something I knew most women would kill for, and standing up at an alarming height.

"Is it that obvious?" My face burned hotter. At some point, I was going to have to find a way to keep the furious blushing under control or just bury myself in a deep hole and never come out.

He chuckled again, a genuine, crooked smile crossing his face. "It is obvious, yes."

We stood in an awkward silence for another minute. The train slowed to a stop in front of us and we stood back, waiting for people to disembark. If I had thought running into Beautiful Stranger in my haste to make the earlier train was embarrassing, what happened next was just a nightmare.

It felt like it happened in slow motion. The last person to get off of the train stepped past me and I started through the doors at the exact same moment Beautiful Stranger stepped toward the doors. I slammed into his chest again, this time knocking his cell phone out of his hand. I watched in horror as it clattered around on the ground, bouncing this way and that before falling through the narrow space between the car and the platform.

_Kill. Me. Now._

My feet were frozen to the platform as I waited for the rage I knew was coming. After what felt like an hour, but was more like 30 seconds, I heard laughter. I opened my eyes and was met with the sight of Beautiful Stranger doubled over, holding his stomach as he laughed so hard tears streamed down his face.

"I'm so sorry," I started, face once again on fire. "I'll replace that for you. If you just let me know how much it cost, I can give you –"

"No, no. Don't worry about it. I'm due for a new one anyway," he choked through his laughter. He waved a hand in the air and took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. Ten seconds later, he was doubled over in laughter again.

I stood there like an idiot, just waiting for him to finish laughing. The sound was contagious, though, and eventually I started laughing too.

"I'm sorry. I'm such a klutz, such an idiot," I sputtered through rounds of laughter. "Seriously, you can't write this shit."

He was still laughing as he looked at me and shook his head. "You're right. You can't write this kind of thing."

As quickly as we'd laughed together, the awkward silence was back. This was the second train I'd missed and it wasn't lost on Beautiful Stranger. "So do you make it a point to miss several trains a day or is today a special occasion?"

The damn blush was back. "Missing the train is not normal. Making a complete ass out of myself, on the other hand… That I do a million times a day."

The next train pulled up and Beautiful Stranger motioned for me to get on the train before him, giving me a playful smile and a wide berth. I held my head high in an attempt to look confident and in control.

I tripped over my own feet and fell into the back of an elderly man.

Beautiful Stranger – was it weird that I kept calling him that in my head? Of course it was. Anyway, Beautiful Stranger stepped gracefully onto the train behind me, shaking his head and laughing again.

I settled into an open seat, hoping that I would cause less damage that way. For five excruciating stops, Beautiful Stranger watched as I managed to trip a woman carrying a massive stack of books, bump coffee out of a teenager's hand, knock over a baby carriage (sans baby, thank God) and blush a brand new shade of red. I was relieved when he stood as the train slowed, indicating this was his stop. I took a deep breath and started to ask him where I could find him to pay him back for the lost cell phone. Instead, I spilled the bottle of water I had been taking nervous sips out of for the last three stops all over his charcoal dress pants.

He shook his head, laughed again and stepped through the open doors. I was staring at my hands, refusing to move again until my stop when I heard him call out, "See you tomorrow, clumsy!"

Obviously my heart was fluttering because I'd made such an idiot of myself in front of him. Right? It had nothing to do with the note of hope I had imagined in his voice when he'd mentioned seeing me tomorrow. Or the knowledge that I would see those green eyes and that beautiful hair again. Right? _Heart, shut up. You're as much of an idiot the rest of me._

The train finally reached my stop and I managed to make it off of the train and all the way home without another incident. As I unlocked the door to my apartment, I heard two familiar voices inside, my roommate Alice and our friend Rosalie.

"Lucy! I'm home!" I called, kicking off my heels, putting my bag down and shaking my head at the papers sticking out of it. It was going to take me at least two hours to get the paperwork I'd spilled all over the platform back in order.

"Rose? Alice?" I made my way into the kitchen, where the two of them were sitting with an open bottle of wine, laughing over something in the magazine they were sharing. Grabbing a glass out of the cupboard, I poured myself some of the cabernet and sank down into a chair. "How are you two?"

Alice glanced up from the magazine, an evil glint in her eye. "Fabulous, as always. What took you so long? Did you finally make a move on Mike Newton?" She was referring to one of the other writers in the sports department at the newspaper where I worked.

"No, Alice. I did not. I told you, he's involved with one of the entertainment girls. Jessica something."

"Oooh, Alice, look at this one!" Rosalie squealed. I looked down, realizing they were looking at a bridal magazine.

"So when are we going shopping for this dress, Rose? Do I need to clear my schedule? The Nats are out of town next week and the Redskins aren't going to give me any news for a few weeks…" I trailed off, waiting for her response.

Rosalie had met her fiancé Emmett while we were all at George Washington University together. They were the epitome of opposites when it came to everything but their beauty. Rose was a striking blonde; every guy at school's wet dream. She stood out in a crowd. Emmett was a tall – huge, really – dark and handsome guy who still shook his head when he realized that he'd proposed to Rosalie and she'd actually said yes.

They had met junior year at a social thrown by the GW Hatchet, the university's newspaper, in honor of the men's water polo team. Alice had been busy that night and I'd begged Rosalie for hours to go with me. When she'd finally agreed, I'd jumped up and down, thanked her, knocked over the pot of water she'd just put on to boil for our pasta dinner that night, and told her that I would love her forever. Rose had not been amused.

That night at the party, Emmett had charmed Rosalie so much that she told me I was off the hook on loving her forever, but I owed her a pasta dinner and a night alone in our apartment with Emmett. They'd been inseparable ever since and Emmett had proposed shortly after graduation. Alice, our resident party planner, had thrown herself into planning the wedding. I was going to be a bridesmaid, but was asked to do nothing but show up able to walk in heels.

"What a pretty gown, Rose," Alice cooed, looking at me. "So why were you late, Bella?"

I groaned and blushed again. "I had a bit of an accident. I was in a rush and I ranintoanabsolutelybeautifulmanandmadeanidiotofmyself," I rushed.

Grabbing the magazine out of Rosalie's hand, Alice slammed it shut. "You did _what_?!"

"I was in a rush to make the train because I have a huge article due on the Nationals tomorrow and I wanted to get some work done on it. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going –"

"Surprise," Rosalie said under her breath.

"I wasn't watching where I was going and I slammed into this guy." I chewed on the corner of my fingernail for a moment. "He was probably the most beautiful guy I've ever seen and all the paperwork in my bag went flying."

Rosalie and Alice were doubled over laughing the same way Beautiful Stranger had been after I'd sent his cell phone flying to an early death on the subway tracks.

"That's not even the best part, you guys. When the next train arrived, I crashed into him again and knocked his cell phone out of his hand. It was total slow mo – the phone fell out of his hand and bounced around for a minute before it slipped between the train and the platform."

Alice howled with laughter. "You… you knocked his cell phone…onto the tracks? PRICELESS, Bells! Only you!"

I tried to glare at her, but I just couldn't do it. I joined in on the laughter and told them about the rest of the embarrassing things that had happened. After a few minutes of laughing so hard we cried, we all managed to calm down enough to take a sip of the wine sitting in front of us.

"So what was this guy's name?" Rosalie asked. "I know that you didn't knock into him, lose his cell phone, and spill water in his lap without finding out his name."

I stared hard at the wine glass in front of me, examining a small chip I'd just discovered.

Alice waved her hand in front of my face. "Helllloooooo? Earth to Bella. Come in, Bella. What's Mr. Hot Stuff's name?"

"I don't know. I didn't get it. I was too busy making a complete ass of myself!" I sounded far more exasperated than I meant to. "I did all of that and he was too beautiful to talk to, way out of my league."

Rosalie shook her head. "No one is out of your league; get that out of your head. You know what you need?" She slammed her hands down on the table, planting her feet and looking like she was about to take on a room full of executives. "You need a night out. Let's go. It'll be fun. I heard there's a new bar open in Georgetown. We can go out, let our hair hang down and cut loose."

Alice giggled and sang, off key – on purpose, of course – "Footloose, Kick off your Sunday shoes!"

I tossed back the rest of my wine and nodded. "Of course, the best thing for me to do is go to a bar with alcohol and dancing and plenty of extra chances to make a complete fool of myself. Sure, no problem!" I grinned at the two of them to let them in on the joke, then headed to my room. "I'll be ready in twenty!"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed in a pair of stretchy black pants and a shimmery blue top Alice had made me buy on our last excursion to the mall, twisting around in front of my mirror trying to figure out what to do with my hair. Rosalie and Alice barged into my room and smacked my hands out of the way, accomplishing in a minute what I'd been working on for the past fifteen. When they were finished, my hair was twisted low on my neck with a few tendrils slipping out of the pins my friends had artfully placed.

I smiled at the two of them in the mirror. "Thanks so much. I'm a mess. Look at you two!" Rosalie had picked out a simple black dress that fell to her calves with peep toed silver heels. Alice was dressed in a scandalously low cut fire engine red top and skirt that barely covered her ass. The heels that matched her top were about five inches high. "Alice, I have no idea how you walk in those things."

They grinned back at me, grabbed my hands and dragged me through the door.

We got to the bar and Alice groaned at the line of people waiting to get in. Rosalie batted her eyelashes at the doorman and before we knew it, we were being escorted through the door. Rosalie and Alice headed straight for the bar while I hung back a bit, taking in the sights. The bar was up a level from the dance floor and wrapped around the perimeter of two walls in the room. There were no stools here; people were meant to grab a drink and head back to the sunken dance floor. There were at least five bartenders taking orders, slinging bottles back and forth between each other and throwing fully poured beers across the bar.

The dance floor was packed and the DJ supplied the dancers with a steady stream of techno music. Not my style at all. Despite what Rose and Alice wanted to think, we weren't here for me. I glanced around one more time, spotting Rosalie and Alice and headed toward them. I made the mistake of not watching where I was walking, missed a step, and fell into the back of one of the men on the dance floor. I worked on righting myself without looking up and froze when I heard him laugh.

_This can't be happening to me._

"That's the third time today you've knocked into me and the second time you've caused me to drop something." He gestured with his empty glass to the spot on the floor where the contents had pooled. I was face to face with the Beautiful Stranger again.

"I'm _so_ sorry. You must think I'm a complete idiot. I can't believe… I mean, what are the chances…. This is _so_ fucking typical of me…" Apparently clumsy wasn't my only problem when he was around. I also turned into more of a bumbling moron than normal.

And damnit all to hell if he didn't just stand there, smiling the same crooked grin he'd given me earlier today, until I fell silent. "Are you finished? Or should I grab a seat for this stunning performance in self deprecation?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, searching for the words to say. If he would just stop staring at me with those sharp green eyes, I might be able to form a coherent sentence. "I… I…. I…."

"Bella, you pain in the ass why are you over here and not with us?" Alice danced her way over to where I stood stammering like a moron at Beautiful Stranger and deposited a colorful drink on my hand. "What are you doing?" She caught sight of him standing behind me and I watched her face run through shock, surprise and awe. Her mouth formed a little 'O' and her eyes flitted back and forth between Beautiful Stranger and me.

I looked desperately at Alice, trying to meet her eyes to plead with her to wake me up from this nightmare. She wouldn't look at me, the little bitch. _She's going to pay for this. Just wait until I get my hands on her_.

"Bells," Alice trilled lightly, "who's your friend?"

In that instant I looked up at him, my eyes begging him to just go along with whatever I said, though I knew he owed me nothing. "No idea, Alice. I just made a complete fool out of myself, though."

Alice nodded, unimpressed. She was used to her clumsy friend. She stuck out her hand and gave Beautiful Stranger one of her signature 'You know you want this' smiles. "I'm Alice. Sorry about Bella. She has a little trouble walking across a flat surface without finding something to trip over."

"Hello, Alice, I'm Edward." Beautiful Stranger shook her hand graciously but his eyes weren't on her. He was watching my face grow so red, it probably matched Alice's top. It had to, I felt like I was on fire, and he was grinning that beautiful crooked grin at me. "It's very nice to meet you, Bella." Beautiful Edward said.

_Really Brain? Just stop. Shut up or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip later. Beautiful Edward my ass._

He put a hand out for me to shake. I reached out with the drink Alice had handed me still in my hand. As soon as I realized what I'd done, I jerked my hand back splashing the liquid all over myself.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," I mumbled. "Alice, we need to go." I grabbed her hand, attempting to drag her back to where Rose was standing before the inevitable happened. I'd managed to make her take three steps when Rose called our names. "Bella! Alice. What the...? Why hello there!" She'd spotted Edward.

"We were just coming to find you, Rose! Look what our Bella did, the klutz." Alice pointed to my wet shirt, the puddle of liquid on the floor from Edward's drink and the fresh round of red coloring my cheeks.

"Well, at least you're in one piece. You should see what's left of the last guy Bella had a run in with," Rosalie winked as she smiled up at Edward. "I'm Rosalie, one of two resident Bella handlers. As a general rule we try not to let her go out in public on her own." She took his hand in her own and shook it vigorously. "Alice is available to do a once over for any injuries you may not have noticed right away."

"Rose, I don't think - "

He cut me off with a laugh. "I think I'm fine. Down a cell phone, but at least I have an interesting story to tell when I have it replaced tomorrow." His green eyes were twinkling and I blushed again when I noticed that he didn't look at Alice or Rose when he was talking to them, he looked at me.

"Oh, she destroyed your cell phone, too? You really should make her pay for that," Rosalie told him. I said a silent prayer of thanks that Rosalie and Alice had been engrossed in wedding planning when I'd told them about my run in with Edward earlier in the day. At the same time, I shot him an "if looks could kill" look. He couldn't possibly know that I'd told them about our earlier run in, but I wasn't taking any chances.

"Rose, Alice? Let's go. I want to dance." I did my best to ignore their laughter as I dragged them toward the dance floor. When I had finally managed to drag them back to the bar, I whipped around and glared at the two of them. "As if embarrassing myself wasn't bad enough, you two had to _help_ me? Jesus! With friends like you who needs enemies? Screw this, I have an article due tomorrow, I'm going home." I started stalking toward the door.

I felt Rose's hand on my wrist and heard Alice's pleading, but I shook them both off. I had work to do and thanks to my antics on the way home, I had a lot to do before I could even sit down and work on my actual work. Walking out the front door of the club, I took a deep breath of the clean spring air.

I wanted to be furious at my friends, I really did. It was hard to be angry at them when I usually laughed as hard as them at me. My clumsiness was well known in every circle I ran in. People in the newsroom knew better than to get in my way if I was concentrating on a story, the athletes I interviewed on a regular basis were never not entertained when I was in the locker room because I almost always managed to fall over something inevitably flashing my underwear to the room which just broke their poor, testosterone enhanced hearts. Rosalie and Alice had been dealing with my particular brand of klutz for almost six years, so they _normally_ had the decency not to laugh at me.

* * *

I zoned out so far on the ride home that the only thing that brought me back to the real world was the cab driver's voice as he told me the cost of my ride. I paid him and trudged up to the apartment slowly. After making sure I had locked the door behind me, I made my way to my bedroom and changed into my at home work "uniform," grey sweats, a faded GWU baseball t-shirt and my reading glasses. I was still sorting through the paperwork I'd scattered across the platform at the train station when Rosalie and Alice got home. It was after 11 p.m. _Shit._

I ignored the sounds of their loud drunken conversation, opening my laptop and finding the article I'd been working on all day. Biting my pen cap between my teeth, I couldn't help but think about my father and his reaction when I told him that the Hatchet had assigned me to the sports beat.

Charlie had lost it. He'd tried my entire life to get me to watch sports with him and I was always so bored. I tried to explain to him that the actual watching of the sports still bored me, that I liked getting the story behind the game, writing about who the players really were behind the game, what they liked to do to better their community and what motivated them to be better players. Telling him that I'd been hired to write for a major newspaper in Washington had shocked him, but he'd gruffly congratulated me, which was his way of telling me he was proud of me.

I glanced over my notes, filling in a few spots in the article. I added a bit of fluff and a few extra quotes before saving the document and e-mailing it to myself at the office just in case. Rosalie and Alice were still talking loudly in living room, but it was late, I was exhausted and I had meetings all day at work tomorrow. I slipped into bed, clicked off my light and stared at my ceiling, thinking of Edward, the Beautiful Stranger.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**: Many thanks to Project Team Beta for the beta-ing of this chapter. I have secured permanent betas through them. Thanks to both of you [Don't worry, I'll introduce them properly next time around. I'm waiting to hear back on how they'd like to be introduced.]

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Twilight or these characters, SM does. I do, however, own up to the fact that some of Bella's clumsier moments in this story are not entirely fictional. More at the bottom, but I'll shut up so you can get on to the chapter.

* * *

The next morning, I woke to the sound of rain on my window. _Perfect. Just… perfect._ I was not looking forward to my commute to the office in the rain. Grabbing my robe, I padded down the hallway to the bathroom, laughing quietly to myself at the sight of Rose and Alice passed out over bridal magazines on the living room couch.

I locked the bathroom door behind me, then started the shower and brushed my teeth while I waited for the water to warm up. I went through the motions of my morning routine: showering, drying my hair, applying light, natural-looking makeup, and dressing in a simple black pencil skirt, white blouse and blue sweater. Glancing out the window and seeing that it was still raining, I decided to forgo an attempt at heels and slipped into a comfortable pair of ballet flats.

I gathered up my belongings and headed for the front door. Rosalie and Alice were just waking up. "Morning, girls. How was the bar?"

Alice shot me a glare before rubbing her eyes. "Did you leave me any hot water?" Alice was the most put together person I knew, except in the morning before she had a shower and cup of coffee.

Rosalie was untangling herself from the blankets they'd throw across themselves over night and her eyes widened when she saw the clock. "Damnit! I have a meeting with Carlisle this morning. Why did I agree to go out with you two last night?" she wailed.

"It was your idea, Rosie." I got a nasty glare from her as she put her shoes on. "Bella, that was _all_ for you. I don't see how it's my fault you chose not to stay after running in to some guy. It's not like that's an unusual occurrence for you." She headed out the front door for the apartment she shared with Emmett, which was just down the hall.

My face flushed as I remembered my second run-in with Edward yesterday. He didn't owe me anything, but he'd gladly played along when I'd lied to Alice about having no idea who he was. Well, that wasn't entirely the case. When she asked, I really _didn't _have any idea who he was. I still didn't know much about him, except that he had the most gorgeous green eyes and the sexiest hair that I'd ever seen.

The shrill sound of Alice yelling from the bathroom brought me out the daydream I was having about tangling my fingers in Edward's hair while kissing him. "BELLA! The hot water is not only yours, you know!"

"That's my cue," I said to the empty room. Sliding the graduation gift from my mother, a black Burberry raincoat, over my shoulders, I headed out the door and toward the metro station.

* * *

I spent the morning in meetings with the Sports Department editors discussing the article I'd turned in that morning, the remaining few months of the baseball season, and the upcoming football season. I was happy to hear that they'd found another writer to cover hockey and basketball, which would relieve some of my workload.

When one of my bosses mentioned that they would like to start sending me on the road with the Nationals, my heart stopped.

Ever since I had taken this job, I had been assigned to a dingy corner of the press box at Nationals Stadium, writing about the outcome of games and occasionally getting the scoop on a move to the disabled list. Mike Newton was the reporter who traveled with the team, spending weeks at a time on the road. I couldn't help it; I questioned their motives. "Why me?"

"Natural progression, Bella. You are ready for this," my favorite editor, Eric Yorkie told me.

After the meeting, Eric pulled me aside. "Bella, I'm not sure if you know this, but Mike's been dating Jessica Stanley who writes the Entertainment column for quite some time." I nodded. I knew they had been dating but I didn't know how long it had been.

"They're getting married in a few weeks, and this is between you and me, because Jessica is almost seven months pregnant."

After I managed to close my mouth, I gulped. "She doesn't look pregnant," I said.

"I know. But she is. Her father found out and apparently it's some big to do. Mike proposed to get her father off his back and they're having a good old-fashioned shotgun wedding. Mike wants to be able to stay at home with Jessica for the first few months after the baby is born, so he's taking a position that will allow him to work from home. Bella, do you know what this means? You're the new beat reporter for the Nationals!"

I wasn't sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry. This was a promotion of sorts and I would get a better seat in the press box of the baseball stadium. As I listened to Eric ramble on about what my new duties would be, I realized that soon I would _only_ be covering the baseball team. One hundred sixty-two games a year, on the road or at home, I would be covering the Nationals. I swallowed a few times, cleared my throat to interrupt Eric, and excused myself to get some water. I was thrilled, but anxious. Could I do this?

I took a few minutes to compose myself then headed back into Eric's office to hash out the details, which included learning that I'd be working closely with someone in the Nationals' front office. I couldn't wait to tell Alice and Rosalie.

Just as we were finishing our meeting, there was a knock on the door. Eric smiled and waved the person in. "Just in time! Bella, I'd like you to meet Edward Cullen. He's your front office liaison."

I stood up, turning on my heel to smile and shake the hand of the man I was inevitably going to have to wow with my writing, dedication, and knowledge of the sport. Many men weren't happy to see women in the sports world. I wasn't prepared to see the Beautiful Stranger smiling at me from the door.

My breath caught in my throat and I dropped the notepad that I'd been scribbling details of my new job on. The fact that I hadn't noticed yesterday just how truly beautiful he was knocked the breath out of me. He was wearing a well-tailored black suit with grey pinstripes over a grey dress shirt that matched the stripes of the suit and a red tie. _Holy crap._

My eyes met his and I saw his genuine smile as he stuck out his hand to shake mine. "Well, hello there, Bella. How are you doing today?" His voice was a smooth as silk and I cursed my heart for fluttering in my chest.

The sound of Eric's voice broke my trance. "You two know each other? Fantastic!" He didn't hide the relief in his voice at not having to do formal introductions. He launched right into a description of how I'd be tied to Edward's side for a few weeks, learning the ins and outs of the team's front office. I wasn't just writing about who won or lost games anymore. I would be privy to information about trades, roster moves and the minor league system, as well as the pleasurable task of being in on all team meetings from here on out. I was going to have a lot of information thrown at me in the next few weeks and I couldn't imagine that having to be around Edward every day was going to make it any easier.

"So you'll meet with Edward Monday morning at the stadium's front office where he'll show you around and give you your new press credentials. Do you have any questions, Bella?" Eric asked.

"Do I get to look at him every day or just on the days when the team is in town?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. I slapped a hand over my mouth and my chin dropped to my chest as I shook my head back and forth. Though Eric was a pretty laid-back guy, I was afraid he was going to snatch away everything that he'd just given me for my complete and utter lack of professionalism. I was _almost_ pleasantly surprised when I heard his laughter mixing in with Edward's.

"At least you can't accuse her of not being honest," Eric told Edward, still laughing. Edward nodded in agreement then held his hand out for me to shake.

"Would you mind, Eric, if I took Bella down to the stadium and started her training today?"

Of course, Eric didn't mind.

I spent the rest of the day following Edward around Nationals Park. He introduced me to the staff, a few players that I hadn't had the chance to meet, and spoke with me at length about the travel arrangements for the press when the team traveled.

I learned a lot, all while managing to knock myself upside the head with a bat when the players had invited me to take a few swings in the batting cage (I adamantly refused; Edward had insisted), falling over a chair in the clubhouse, spilling a cup of coffee all over my sweater, and practically flashing Edward and his assistant when I'd tried to take my wet sweater off.

"I swear, I'm not usually like this," I told him as I blotted the coffee stain from the white shirt I wore under my sweater. "I'm a klutz, anyone can tell you that, but I'm not usually _this_ bad."

Edward laughed. "Was yesterday a fluke, too?"

My face flushed and I gave him a sheepish grin. "Ever have a day when nothing seems to go right? I'm lucky enough to have them in clusters."

* * *

I was never happier to hear the words "I'll see you later" as I was when Edward spoke them to me shortly after 6:30 p.m. I smacked myself in the head; I was late for my dinner date with Rose and Alice to discuss wedding dress shopping.

"Be careful, Bella," Edward said. "Wouldn't want to knock anything loose in there."

I was putting my Blackberry in the front pocket of my bag when it slipped from my grasp and clattered to the floor. I reached down to get it at the same moment Edward did, knocking my head into his.

I saw stars. Pressing my palm to the sore spot on my forehead, I asked Edward if he was okay.

Edward's posture was identical to mine, but he nodded as he handed me the Blackberry. "I'll be just fine. See you Monday, Bella. Hopefully without the run-ins?"

Nodding to him, I grabbed my bag and flew out the door hoping to make it to the restaurant in time for after dinner drinks.

Taking the Metro train was completely out of the question, so I grabbed a cab. When the driver dared to ask me how my day was going, I barked out the name of the restaurant. I was an hour late by the time I arrived. Alice and Rosalie wore matching scowls on their faces.

"I'm so sorry I'm late. I know you're furious with me, but I have good news! I kinda got a promotion."

Neither one of them flinched. _Shit_._ I'm screwed._

"Isabella Swan, just where in the hell have you been? I'm _trying_ to plan a wedding here and if one of the bridesmaids isn't around for the planning, how could she possibly know that she'll be wearing a stunning Vera Wang bridesmaid dress?" Alice's voice was barely above a whisper, which tipped me off. She was really pissed. Now would not be the time to remind her that she'd told me I wasn't needed for a good chunk of the planning.

"Alice, I'm sorry. I had a bit of a curveball thrown at me today at work. I spent a huge part of the day at Nationals Park because of this new assignment I was given today." I inserted the mention of the new job again, praying that it would distract her from her anger with me. In theory, it would work. In practice? Well, let's just say that I knew better than to bet against Alice's temper most days.

"You got a new job, Bella? That's fantastic! What is it?" At least Rosalie was interested.

I gave her a private smile of thanks and launched into the story: Mike and Jessica's relationship, what it meant as far as my schedule went, the training I'd gone through with Edward and all of the embarrassing things that had happened while in his presence, up to and including the Blackberry incident. I wasn't sure how to explain to them that Edward was the same guy from the bar last night, so for the time being I kept that detail to myself.

"Well that's great, Bells! I'm proud of you." There was still a trace of anger in Alice's voice and before I knew what was happening, she was showing me a picture of the simple, knee-length, strapless bridesmaid dress that Rosalie had decided we would wear.

"As cliché as this sounds, I want you to be able to wear this dress again," she told us.

Rose and Emmett had decided to do an intimate outdoor wedding at the Jefferson Memorial at the end of September. The wedding party wasn't large, just Alice and me on Rose's side and two of Emmett's friends from the water polo team on his side.

"So when are we going shopping for your gown, Rosie? I want to make sure I can be there," I said over dessert.

"I actually wouldn't mind going tomorrow. My mom is in town for the weekend and I know she'd be furious if I went without her."

Alice nearly leapt out of her seat, clapping her hands with glee. "That's perfect!" she squeaked. "I can definitely be there! What about you, Bells?"

"The baseball team is out of town and Mike is on this trip with them, so I think I'm in the clear."

* * *

Wedding gown shopping with Rosalie was bound to be interesting. Wedding gown shopping with Rosalie _and_ Alice was going to be the death of me; pairing those two, an early morning and shopping was a trifecta of evil I wasn't sure I was ready for.

Saturday was the one day a week I usually allowed myself the luxury of sleeping late and relaxing around the apartment. I wasn't afforded such luxury this morning. Alice had bounded into my room - _Note to self, get better door lock_ - at 6:30, ready and raring to go. She insisted that we be at the boutique she had in mind the moment the doors opened at 8:30. Pricey wedding boutiques opened at 8:30 on Saturday mornings? I assumed Rosalie's mother had pulled some strings.

By 9:00, Rosalie had tried on two gowns already. I sat in a comfortable chair in a room surrounded with mirrors, sipping the mimosa that was forced into my hand the moment we'd walked in the door. Oh yeah, the Hale money and influence were definitely at work here. Who knew it stretched all the way to D.C. from Rochester?

Mrs. Hale wasn't one for small talk, so I let my mind wander, thinking about the last two days and my interactions with Edward. I really had made a _complete_ fool of myself. I had no idea how I was going to convince him that I wasn't a total dolt. Alice and Rosalie liked to joke that I could trip over air and some days that was true, but the marathon of embarrassing events that occurred over the past two days was borderline ridiculous.

The sound of Alice and Rosalie squealing from the dressing room brought me out of my trance.

"I found it! I found the one!" Rosalie called. She was practically floating as she came into the mirrored room where I sat with her mother, waiting.

The gown was stunning. The sweetheart neckline gathered in a ruched bodice with beading all over. It had a trumpet skirt and beads all down the back with a chapel-length train.

"Rose," I breathed. "You look like a princess. Emmett is going to freak out when he sees you!"

Alice was bouncing up and down, squealing. "Rose, this is going to be the most amazing wedding!"

"Are you sure you don't want to try some other gowns on, dear?" Mrs. Hale asked.

Shaking her head, Rosalie refused. "Mother, this is the one. There's no way I could find something better than this." Her eyes pleaded with her mother. No one could resist Rose's pout and her mother was no exception.

"All right, dear. It's early yet. I'll place the order and then we can head out for brunch if the three of you would like that."

Rosalie looked to Alice and me and we nodded.

"Brunch sounds great," Alice and I said at the same time.

A short while later, the four of us settled in for brunch at a small restaurant in Georgetown. After we'd placed our orders, Rosalie, Alice and Mrs. Hale got lost in wedding talk. I tried to pay attention, but let my mind shift to Edward again. Logically, I knew my focus should be on the job, not the man I was working with, but lately my brain just didn't do logic.

My eyes wandered around the restaurant, doing a little people-watching while interjecting appropriate Uh-huh's, Good idea's, and That would be fantastic's into the wedding chatter.

I had just taken a gulp of my orange juice when I thought I saw a familiar tuft of hair near the entrance. I choked a little, attempting to assure Alice that I was okay while I coughed the juice out of my lungs. _Obviously, you are an idiot, Brain. Move along now, nothing to see here._

"Hey, Bells, isn't that the guy you ran into at the bar the other night?" Alice asked suddenly. "I wonder who he's with." She was squirming in her seat, trying to get a better look at the table behind me.

I turned in my seat, ducking my head a little when I realized that it _was_ Edward that I'd seen at the entrance. He was with a tall blonde man and they were deep in conversation. _I knew he was way too nice. He's gay and that's his partner. Or his date from last night._

I nodded at Alice. "That's him." Taking a deep breath, I figured I might as well spill the beans now. "That's also the guy who works for the office at National Park who I made a fool of myself in front of yesterday.

"_That_ is your new boss, Bella? At least you won't complain about getting up to go to work anymore," Rose said with a smirk.

"_Liaison_, Rosalie. He's my liaison with the team. I still work for the paper."

"So who's the other guy, Bella? Spill!" Alice was bouncing in her seat again.

I snorted. "I have no idea who the guy is, Alice. I've known Edward for precisely three days and we were just formally introduced to each other yesterday. We haven't exactly gotten around to having a heart to heart about who we spend time with on the weekends."

"Geez, Bell. No reason to be mean about it. I'm going over there to say hi."

Before I could stop her, Alice was out of her seat and halfway across the room. I felt my face blush and gave a little half-wave to Edward as Alice gestured over to our table. She talked to them for about five minutes, and then practically danced back to our table.

"That, dear Bella, is Edward's brother Jasper," she told me, flopping down in her seat.

_Okay, not his partner. Not gay? Just because he's having brunch with his brother doesn't mean he's not gay. Shut up, shut up, shut up!_

"He's fantastic," Alice continued, interrupting to my internal monologue. "He teaches a Civil War and Reconstruction course at George Mason. Youngest professor in the history department and absolutely gorgeous to boot!"

"Alice, do we need to point out to you that you history bores you?" Rosalie asked with a giggle.

Alice grinned. "Nope. What he doesn't know won't hurt him." She watched the table behind me closely and giggled a little. "Edward's coming over here, Bella."

I blushed again. Of course.

"Good morning, Bella."

I was expecting him, but I still jumped a little. Turning in my seat, I smiled at him. "Good morning, Edward. How are you today?" _Please, let the blush fade._

"I'm doing well, thank you," he answered formally.

I stared awkwardly down at my hands, trying to come up with something else to say. Thank God for Alice.

"Nice to see you again, Edward! Why didn't you bring your brother over to introduce him to everyone?"

He chuckled a little and explained that Jasper was on the phone with their mother, trying desperately to convince her that all was well with her sons even though neither one of them had called in a few days.

Alice nodded and stood up. "Well I'll just go keep him company, then." She flitted off across the restaurant again and I watched as she plopped herself down in the seat across from Jasper.

I cleared my throat and willed my brain to control its word vomit spigot. "Edward, you remember Rosalie from the other night? This is her mother," I gestured to Mrs. Hale, who had been quiet since Alice had gotten up to say hello to Edward and his brother.

Mrs. Hale nodded her head and turned to Rosalie to excuse herself. "I'm going to head out, dear. Your father wants to take care of some business before we leave for Rochester this afternoon. I'm so pleased that you found such a beautiful gown." She stood and placed a kiss on Rosalie's head. Rose nodded and then gestured to the seat her mother had vacated.

"Have a seat, Edward."

A few minutes later, Alice was dragging Jasper across the room, barking out an order to the server who'd been taking care of their table. "Just make sure their food gets over here!" She smiled at a couple seated at a table near us and asked to borrow a chair. Swatting Jasper on the arm, she gestured for him to take it and add it to our table.

There was never a lull in the conversation and I found myself thanking my lucky stars that Alice had the confidence that she did. It was nice to see Edward in a situation where I hadn't embarrassed myself right off the bat. The five of us chatted about everything. Rosalie was convinced that Emmett would just love Edward and Jasper and was anxious to set up a get-together. Before I knew what was happening, we had all agreed to meet for dinner at Rose and Emmett's place the following night. "But of course, Bella will cook. Right, Bella?" Rose begged.

I opened my mouth to answer her and snapped it shut when I heard Edward laughing. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?"

"I'll have you know that I am an excellent cook," I snapped. "And I may be a bit clumsy –" Edward chuckled. "Okay, a lot clumsy," I continued, throwing him a dirty look, "But I have managed dinner parties larger than six without doing any serious damage."

Edward's mouth was hanging open. _Shit. Too far?_

"My apologies. It's just that after knocking me to the ground and helping me acquire a new cell phone," he gestured to the new Blackberry sitting in front of him, "I thought it couldn't hurt to ask." The smile on his face was sincere and I smiled at him.

"No harm, no foul. You've seen me at my absolute worst, I think."

We finished up our food and Rosalie argued with Jasper over who was to foot the bill, as her mother had left specific instructions that this meal was on her.

"You bring wine tomorrow night and we'll call this even, okay?" Rose instructed.

The bill was settled and we said goodbye to Edward and Jasper. Alice and Rosalie headed off to search for the perfect undergarments and shoes for her new wedding gown while I begged off. There was a new bookstore I wanted to check out before I got too wrapped up in my new job.

Heading out the front door, I turned right and started down the street for the bookstore. I heard my phone chirp in my purse and started digging to find it. There was a text message from a number I didn't recognize.

_Sorry to have upset you today. Looking forward to dinner tomorrow night._

I had to give Mrs. Cullen credit. She raised a well-mannered son.

* * *

**A/N the second**: So it jumped around. Sorry about that. I have a lot of groundwork to lay before I can get into the nitty gritty of the story. I hope you can forgive and will stick with me. Many of you said in your reviews for the first chapter that you hoped Bella wasn't a serial klutz [obviously, I'm paraphrasing]. The best way I can think of to describe her first meeting with Edward and the interaction that they had on the first day of her new job is this - have you ever had one of those days when _everything_ goes wrong? Bella had that day, two days in a row. It's not completely unheard of for that to happen. The series of events at the stadium happened to me while I was attending a baseball clinic for women.

Thanks to everyone who added me to alerts and reviewed. The motivation to keep going is much appreciated. Hopefully it won't be so long between chapters next time.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**: Thanks to the phenomenal juliebee for guest beta-ing this chapter for me. I literally just started her story, _Meant to Be_, and I'm enthralled. Enjoy!

* * *

It was nearly 5:30 and I was still running around the kitchen like a chicken with my head cut off. I had arrived at Rose and Emmett's apartment around 2:00 to start dinner. I'd planned a simple menu, a basic Caesar salad to start, roasted chicken in balsamic vinaigrette, roasted baby potatoes with herbs, and a pasta salad with a light lemon and olive oil dressing for the entrée and tiramisu from scratch for dessert. I'd planned to make bread to go with the meal as well, but that was squashed when the dough refused to rise properly. I started over again, only to have my second attempt fail before I conceded to Rose and Alice to let Emmett buy bread from the bakery down the street.

I glanced up at the clock and cursed under my breath. The chicken and potatoes were roasting in the oven, the tiramisu was chilling and all I really had to do was boil the pasta for the side dish. Realistically, I knew that this was something Rosalie or Alice could handle, but I was a bit hyper about my cooking. I didn't want anything that was going to have my name attached to it to be anything less than perfect. The problem was, I still had to shower and make myself presentable for dinner and I had about half an hour before Edward and Jasper arrived. Rosalie and Alice were already dressed and ready, as was Emmett. I sighed, resigned to the fact that I would have to let Rosalie back into her kitchen to finish up the pasta for me. "Rosalie? Would you mind helping me out?" I called to her as I put a huge pot of salted water on the stove to boil.

Rose came into the kitchen with a smirk on her face. "You're actually letting me back into my own kitchen, Bella? I'm shocked."

I glared at her and pointed to the pot of water. "When this hits a rolling boil, please dump this box of pasta in. Cook it for seven minutes and drain it. I need you to reserve one cup of the water, too. Can you remember all of that?"

Rosalie narrowed her eyes at me and started twisting a piece of hair around her finger. "So, like… dump the pasta in the, like, pot. Then like, let it cook for a while, drain it but save some of the water and like, try not to ruin it?" She was doing her best valley girl impression and I couldn't help but laugh.

"That's right, Rosie," I said, winking at her. "Thanks for your help. I'll be back to finish this up after I shower and change."

I made my way down the hallway to my apartment and headed straight for the bathroom. I started the shower and ran into my bedroom to grab some clothes for the evening. I settled on a pair of grey slacks and a royal blue button down shirt.

I showered, dried my hair and got dressed in record time. At 5:55, I was headed back down the hall to the other apartment, praying that Rosalie had cooked the pasta correctly. I let myself in the front door and laughed at Emmett and Rosalie who were tangled up in each other on the couch while Alice stared at the TV trying to ignore them. "Hey Rose, did you manage to cook the pasta for me before you started sucking face with your fiancé?" I called over my shoulder.

I didn't wait for her answer. I saw the bowl of cooked pasta sitting on the counter and grabbed a piece of it, testing to see if it was done properly. It was perfect and I let Rosalie know before I started putting the dressing together. I was zesting the lemon when I heard a knock on the door. Immediately, my stomach knotted. _Why the hell am I so nervous_?

If I was being completely honest with myself, I knew _exactly_ why I was nervous. I wasn't trying to keep track of it, but the glaring reality was that I made an idiot of myself around Edward. Typically it wouldn't matter to me, but I'd thought a lot about the way my hand felt in his when he helped me up from the platform at the Metro station that first day. I figured the shock that I felt was built up static electricity; no way could one person have that effect on another, right? But it had also been there when I ran into him at the bar and when he shook my hand the next day in the newsroom.

I spent more time than I cared to admit thinking about his eyes and the way that the shade of green ranged from a dark emerald to a bright apple throughout the day. Eyes are the window to the soul, right? So what was he thinking about that occasionally turned his eyes that dark emerald color? I'd only ever seen a man's eyes that dark when he was lusting after someone. I snorted at the thought that Edward was having _those _kinds of thoughts around me. His hair was positively sinful. It stood out in all directions yet seemed to lay right just enough that I wanted to tangle my fingers in it and muss it up even further.

The sound of Edward's smooth voice brought me out of my daydream. I quickly finished the dressing for the pasta salad and surveyed the progress on the potatoes and chicken. They'd be done in about twenty minutes. I picked up the bowl containing the Caesar salad and started for the dining room. I very nearly dropped the entire thing on the floor after getting a good look at what Edward was wearing. He was dressed casually, in black trousers and a green top that matched his eyes. The sleeves were rolled to his elbows, displaying well toned forearms. His hair stood out in every direction possible and his left hand was running through it which only made it stand out more, as he shook hands with Emmett.

I took a deep breath to settle my nerves and walked into the dining room. Alice, Jasper and Rosalie had already taken their seats. "Hey guys," I said brightly setting the salad bowl on the table. "It's great to see you again."

Dinner went well, if I had to say so myself. The conversation and wine were both flowing, Edward and Jasper raved about my cooking and Alice got a big laugh out of them when, out of nowhere, she looked at me and said "Bella, look into your heart pretty baby, is it aching with some nameless need?"

I blushed, because there was no way that she could know what I'd been thinking about Edward, right? Without missing a beat, I answered her. "Del Amitri, Roll to Me." That lead to an explanation of a game that the four of us played.

"Bella has a remarkable memory for useless information," Rosalie told them with a laugh. "Our newest game is giving her song lyrics to see if we can stump her. No one has yet."

Jasper laughed. "I think I may have to try my luck at this." Edward nodded his agreement and the two of them were quiet for a while the rest of us talked over dinner.

As I stood up to clear the plates so that I could bring out the tiramisu, Jasper cleared his throat and said "I'm not always nice, I'm not always mean. My room has never been seen clean."

I snorted. "Does she really, Jasper?"

His eyes grew wide and his jaw hung open. Four sets of eyes looked back and forth between Jasper and me. "Well? Does she Jasper?" I called over my shoulder as I walked into the kitchen. I heard Emmett whispering to Rosalie, asking her if they knew what the hell I was talking about.

Edward followed me into the kitchen and the look on his face clearly told me he was curious, too. "I'm not telling you until Jasper answers my question," I said as I handed him dessert plates. "Would you mind carrying these out there for me?"

"Sure, no problem," Edward said as his face lit up with a beautiful crooked smile. "She was a schoolboy's dream, I was out of my mind," he said with a smirk as we walked back into the dining room together.

"You're going to have to do better than that, Edward. Bon Jovi, Queen of New Orleans."

"Wait, why did you answer his before you answered mine?" The smile on Jasper's face was smug; I could tell he thought he had me.

"Because you didn't answer my question, Jasper. Does. She. Really?" I punched the last three words to see if I could get a rise out of him.

I did.

Jasper turned a shade of red that I thought was reserved for only my particularly embarrassing days and muttered "You know I don't live at home, right?"

"You know that doesn't always matter, right?" I quipped. "Come on, Jasper. Just a yes or a no. Answer so that I can tell everyone the answer. You're driving them crazy."

Jasper threw his hands in the air. "Fine! Sometimes, okay? She does it sometimes."

I tried very hard to bite back my laughter, but I couldn't help it. My snicker gave way to a chuckle which rapidly turned into a full blown belly laugh. Jasper blushed a little darker and started to giggle a little, while Alice, Rosalie, Emmett and Edward all gaped at us, wondering what had come over the two of us.

Rosalie was the first to give in and demand to know just what in the hell was so funny.

"Jasper just admitted that his mom still cleans his room," I said, the grin on my face growing.

"Wait, what?" Edward sounded confused. "Mom still cleans your room? What are you, five?" He bent at the waist, laughing nearly as hard as he had at me on the Metro platform they first time we met.

"She cleans around my placesometimes. Don't even pretend like she doesn't pick up around your apart –"Jasper cut himself off when Edward started to laugh harder. "Don't answer that, you neat freak son of a bitch."

"Will one of you please tell me what the hell you two are talking about?" Rosalie slammed her hands down on the table in frustration.

Emmett and Alice each nodded in agreement. Based on Edward's laughter, I assumed he had finally figured out which song his brother tried to stump me with. My shoulders were still shaking with laughter as I told them. "Jasper thought he could stump me with MXPX. The song is My Mom Still Cleans My Room."

Emmett, Rosalie and Alice burst into loud laughter, as Jasper's face turned a shade redder and I was surprised when he joined in on the laughter. Alice was the first to recover and I suspected it was because she had a little – _if you considered Niagra Falls little _– crush on Jasper. According to Rosalie, Alice had chattered about him the entire time they were shopping after brunch and she hadn't been much better when she got home. "That was a good lyric, Jasper. Don't let them stress you out," she said, trying to soothe him.

"I'm sorry, Jasper," I said, choking back another guffaw.

"No, no," Jasper said, waving a hand in the air. "Don't worry about it. I kind of asked for it."

"But you looked like you thought you had me," I said, shaking my head.

"Oh I knew I didn't have you as soon as you asked me if she really did," Jasper said with a smile. "But it was just too easy to tease you about answering my big brother's before mine."

I could feel a faint blush creeping across my cheeks. I stared at the plate in front of me, hoping that no one would notice the pink coloring my complexion. My hopes were bashed when Emmett boomed "Why are you blushing, Bells?"

I gritted my teeth and shook my head. "Guess I've had my limit in wine for the night, Em." Emmett was always quick to tease me; thankfully this time he decided to let it go.

A few minutes later, the laughter had quieted and everyone was tucking into the tiramisu.

"Wow, this is… fantastic," Edward said as he stuffed another bite into his mouth. "You didn't actually make this, did you Bella?"

I nodded happily. "I did. I have a bit of an obsession with the Food Network. _Everyday Italian_ is my favorite. This is Giada's recipe."

"It's brilliant," Jasper said. "Really, really good." He shoveled more of the dessert into his mouth and reached out for the serving dish to put more on his plate.

We chatted for a bit over coffee and it was nearly 9:00 before I knew it. Emmett excused himself, saying he had an important presentation first thing in the morning and needed to go to bed. I stood to say my goodnights to everyone when I heard Alice ask Jasper if he wanted to come by our place for another cup of coffee. He nodded enthusiastically and Edward rolled his eyes.

"Jasper, I don't know if that's such a good idea," he said.

"Oh, don't worry about it. You're invited too, silly," Alice said lightly. She glanced at me and smirked. "Isn't he, Bella?"

I couldn't resist Alice when she pleaded with me and the look on her face was pleading at its best. _What in the hell is she up to?_ I nodded my head. "Of course, you're invited Edward. Just let me clean up these dishes and I'll be down. Alice can keep you both entertained until I get back."

Rosalie shook her head. "No way, Bella. You spent so much time cooking today. The least I can do is take care of the dishes." She stood and handed me an unopened bottle of wine. "You four go enjoy this," she said with a smile.

"Perfect!" Alice exclaimed. "Come on, guys. We live right down the hall." She grabbed Jasper by the hand and waved to Rosalie and Emmett. "Good night, you two!"

Edward and Jasper each shook Emmett's hand and thanked Rosalie for her hospitality. _Ms. Manners had nothing on Mama Cullen._

When we reached the apartment, Alice grabbed Jasper by the hand and dragged him back to her bedroom, leaving Edward and I standing awkwardly in the living room. I rocked back and forth on my heels, trying like hell to come up with something to say to him.

_Talking to him should not be this difficult, Bella. Just __**say**__ something. Anything. Break the ice._

"Would you like something to drink?" I asked as I motioned toward the bottle of wine in my hand.

_Okay. Let's go for something a little more interesting next time, shall we?_

"That would be great."

I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard a tinge of nerves in his voice. _There you go ignoring logic again, Brain._

I uncorked the bottle of wine, set it on the coffee table and went into the kitchen to grab some glasses. Edward was still standing when I walked back into the living room, looking curiously at the massive shelving unit that covered an entire wall. "I read a lot," I said with a smile. "and listen to a lot of music, but I'm sure you gathered that from the little game my friends have decided to play with me." I poured two glasses of the wine, kicked off my shoes and sat on the couch, folding my legs under me.

Edward turned to me with a laugh. "How exactly did the lyrics game come about, anyway?"

I shrugged. "I honestly have no idea. I _think_ Emmett and Rose were arguing Jane's Addiction lyrics. Emmett insisted that in Jane Says, they were singing 'Jane says, have you seen my weed around? I cannot kick without it.' Rosalie wasn't sure what the correct lyric was, but she just _knew_ he was wrong. I let them argue for a bit before correcting Emmett. The lyric is actually –"

"Jane says, have you seen my wig around? I feel naked without it," Edward said.

I'm not going to lie, my jaw fell open. "You know Jane's Addiction?"

"I'm a bit of a music fan myself," he said, smiling. "Classically trained pianist with a fetish for all music. The variety music on my iPod would astound you."

I patted the couch cushion next to me and laughed. "I bet you've got nothing on me!"

Edward picked up the other glass of wine and took the seat next to me. He ran a hand through his deliciously messy hair and relaxed against the back of the couch. Neither of us said anything for a few moments and I had to ask him "How did you get my phone number?"

He choked on the sip of wine he'd just taken. I gave him a few seconds to calm down before quirking an eyebrow at him. "Well?"

"Alice gave it to me," he said quietly. "I asked her for it when she introduced herself to Jasper and me yesterday morning."

"You could have just asked me on Friday," I teased gently. "We _are_ working together. It's not a completely unforeseen thing that you might need to call me at some point to discuss travel arrangements or a meeting that I need to attend or any number of things, really."

He smiled at me, an enticing crooked grin that would normally have rendered me speechless, but my body and brain were working on wine courage.

"If I were to plug your iPod into a computer, which artists would have the most play time?" I asked.

He sighed, ran his hand through his air again and smiled. "It varies. AC/DC, Styx, classical, Van Morrison, Ratt, the Eagles, CCR, things like that. If I've had a particularly bad day, the first song I listen to is Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit."

I snorted into my wine glass. "The first line of that song accurately describes how I feel on bad days."

He nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely. The part about wanting to rip someone's head off is generally what keeps Jane out of my office," he said with a smile. "Over the years, she's learned that if she hears that song, it's best to give me some distance. What about you? What do you listen to most often?"

I chewed on my bottom lip and took a swig of my wine. "I'm a lot like you. It just depends on my general mood. I've been mellow lately. A lot of Jason Mraz, Jimmy Buffett, Rob Thomas, both solo and with Matchbox Twenty, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, that kind of thing. I listen to MXPX or the Beastie Boys to pump myself up when I'm working out. Break Stuff is my pissed-off-at-the-world-stay-outta-my-way song, too. I listen to classical to help me relax at night. I've been really addicted to Vivaldi lately. There is _nothing_ like hearing Joshua Bell playing a Vivaldi piece," I sighed.

Edward's eyes were wide and I couldn't read his face. _I'm never drinking wine again. I babble too much._ "I'm sorry, I know I talk too much. It's the wine, I swear."

He held up a hand to me. "No, no. It's fine. I've just never heard met anyone else who appreciates Bell playing Vivaldi before. What's your favorite movie?"

"Gone With the Wind." I threw up my hands in defense when I saw a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "It's a great movie and nothing you say will change my opinion. Yours?"

He stifled his laughter. "I wouldn't dare try to change your opinion on that. To answer your question, The Natural."

I snorted again and started laughing. "Let me guess. You wanted to be Roy Hobbs when you were a little boy so you made your very own Wonderboy, right?"

He nodded, laughing. "I did. I cried the day I broke that bat." He ran his hand through his hair a few times in quick succession. "Why did you decide to become a sports writer?"

"I didn't," I said honestly. "I was an English major in college and had dreams of becoming a professor or something equally as boring. I did some writing for the paper on the side and someone thought it would be amusing to assign me the sports beat. I'm not a person who can do things half assed, so I threw myself into it. I learned everything I could about what it meant to write a sports column. I spent a summer interning at Pardon the Interruption and learned a lot from those guys. I still see Tony Reali from time to time when he's not too busy. I'll be forever thankful to the idiot editor at the Hatchet who decided that I should write the sports column. I _love_ my job. I don't really care for sports, but there's so much more to it than that. I got to cover the opening of Camp Forget-Me-Not, which is a part of The Moyer Foundation."

Edward's eyes twinkled as he laughed. "You don't even like sports, but you love your job? You're quite the conundrum, aren't you, Bella Swan?"

"I don't think so," I deadpanned. "What about you, Mr. Front Office? How'd you get into the dreadfully interesting world of baseball?"

He shrugged. "Jim Bowden was a friend of the family. When the Expos moved to Washington, my uncle suggested that Jim call me about handling the team's public relations. Jim said it was a no brainer. I was sad to see him go."

I nodded, chewing on my bottom lip again. We fell into a comfortable silence that was interrupted by a loud bang from Alice's room. Edward and I looked at each other, each of us shaking with silent laughter. "What do you think they're doing back there?" I asked quietly.

"No idea." He stood and reached out for my hand. "Shall we go see?"

I let him help me off of the couch, expecting him to drop my hand once I was securely on my feet. I was more than a little shocked when he tightened his grip on my fingers as we crept down the hall toward Alice's room.

I reached out gingerly and tried the knob. I felt it give in my hand and waggled my eyebrows suggestively at Edward. He nodded, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. I flung the door open. "Mary Alice Brandon, _what_ are you doing to cause all that racket?"

I'm pretty sure that neither of us was expecting the scene that Edward and I had just walked in on. Jasper was holding a huge picture frame up against a wall and nearly dropped it at the sound of my voice. Alice was standing on her bed, hands on her hips. I guessed that she was trying to figure out the exact right placement for the frame Jasper was holding on to.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Edward asked, shoulders still shaking because he was laughing so hard.

Alice sighed. "I needed help hanging the art that I bought last week," she said, gesturing to four frames that were sitting against the wall. "Jasper offered."

Jasper's head nodded in agreement. "I couldn't very well let her try to hang this herself," he said, setting the picture frame he'd been holding down on the floor.

I laid my head against Edward's shoulder and leaned into him as I tried to stop laughing. Every time I calmed enough to chuckle quietly a few times, the image of Jasper's face as I threw open the door caused me to start laughing all over again. Edward's arm was wrapped around my shoulder and I found myself enjoying the warmth as I took a few calming breaths. "You know, Alice," I said, still chuckling a bit, "you could have asked me for help."

Alice snorted and threw me a dirty look. "Really, Bella. You think I'd trust you with a hammer?"

Edward, Alice and Jasper dissolved into a fit of laughter and I joined them before long. "Touché."

I helped Alice decide on proper placement for her new artwork and Edward helped Jasper with the actual hanging of the pieces. Afterward, Edward and I returned to our glasses of wine.

"Where were we," he asked with a smile.

"I believe we were discussing our jobs," I said. "Be honest, are you a Nationals fan?"

Edward held a hand over his heart in mock horror. "But of course, I'm a Nationals fan, Bella. Why wouldn't I be?" He laughed quietly and shook his head. "Completely honest? I'm a White Sox fan. Jasper and I grew up in Chicago. He's a Cubs fan, actually."

I laughed. "Bet that makes for some interesting conversation during the Crosstown Classic."

Edward nodded enthusiastically. "It does. It drives Mom insane. Dad's kind of indifferent to the whole thing. He was really good about the whole thing when we were growing up. He took both of us to games and never showed a preference for either time. My parents are wonderful," he said softly.

"What do they do?"

"Dad's a doctor and Mom stayed at home with us. She does a lot of charity work." The smile on his face was wide. He obviously loved his parents a lot.

"Wait, your dad is a doctor? His name isn't Carlisle, is it?" I asked.

A look of confusion swept across his face. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Oh wow. What a small world. Rosalie works with him! I'm surprised it didn't come up at dinner," I said. "She works in administration at the George Washington University Hospital."

He laughed again. "Dad has nothing but wonderful things to say about the administration there. Apparently some spitfire of a woman helped him get the budget approved for a new machine he wanted for open heart surgeries the other day."

"That was Rose," I said proudly. "She's thrilled that they're getting it." I glanced up at the clock and saw that it was nearly midnight. "Oh wow. It's late."

Edward stood. "You're right. I should get going. I have a trainee to work with in the morning," he said, giving me his crooked grin again. "I wouldn't want to be anything less than my best for her."

I playfully shoved his shoulder. "I have an early meeting with my new liaison for the Nationals and I think I need to prove to him that I'm not a complete klutz. I made quite an idiot of myself on Friday," I said.

Edward's face grew serious. "I had a great time tonight, Bella."

I saw a flash of something in his eyes, but it was gone before I could get a good read on it. "Me, too. So I'll see you in the morning?"

He nodded and looked down the hall toward Alice's room. "I should get Jasper."

"Alice! Edward is ready to go!" I called. I heard a muffled sound coming from Alice's room, followed by Jasper's head poking out the door.

"Give me two minutes," Jasper said.

Edward nodded and turned to me. "Um… this isn't going to make work awkward, is it?"

"What isn't?" I asked. "Dinner tonight? No, no way!" I shook my head. "Why would dinner make work awkward?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea."

My giggle was a direct result of the wine that I had consumed. "I don't think anyone will get the wrong idea if we are friendly with each other, Edward. Nothing's different, right? We just…" I paused, thinking of how I wanted to say this. "We just know more about each other than we did on Friday. It was bound to happen anyway."

He sighed and nodded. "You're absolutely right."

Jasper and Alice emerged from her room. Both looked slightly rumpled and they wore matching grins on their faces.

"Good night, Jazz," I heard Alice whisper.

"Good night," he said back softly.

"Guess that's our cue," I murmured. Without warning, I threw my arms around Edward's neck. "I really did have a great time tonight."

He stiffened a bit, but returned my hug after a moment. "I'll see you in the morning, Bella. Eight a.m.," he said with a smile.

I groaned a bit. "I'll bring the coffee. How do you take yours?"

"Cream and two sugars, please," he said as he and Jasper headed through the door. "Good night, Bella."

The door closed behind them and I whispered, "Good night, Edward."

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If you are interested in any of the recipes I mentioned in this chapter, PM me for them.

What do you think of the song lyric game? Suggestions for lyrics to be throw out in random conversation are welcome.

I send out teasers with reviews. :)

And finally, I've started beta-ing a little fic called_ Bella and the Geek_. The author is known as RebeccaKay27 around these parts. It's also on Twilighted, along with it's very own thread. [Jealous, she has one and I don't!]


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N**: Thanks to pkitten21 and TFX for their beta skills. They're 2/3 responsible for _Reunion_ by KeepersOfTheNaughtySparkle. If you haven't read it, you need to do so. Go now, Home Run will be here when you're done.

**Disclaimer**: SM owns Twilight. Any song lyrics are copyright of their respective owners.

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_Curse the bastard who invented sunlight_. The early morning sun was filtering through the curtains in my bedroom and I groaned out loud. My head was pounding and I had cotton mouth. _I'm never drinking again_, I declared silently. I snorted. _Really, Brain. You can't lie to anyone. Not even me._

I was nothing if not incoherent first thing in the morning. Being hung over increased my incoherency exponentially. I stumbled my way through my shower and getting ready for the day, stopped to grab coffee – black for me, cream with two sugars for Edward – and made it into his office at 7:55. He didn't look much better than I felt and I was relieved that I wasn't the only one who'd had too much to drink the night before.

His assistant, Jane, came into the room five minutes after 8:00 and gaped at us for a second before launching into an explanation of his – _our_ – schedule for the day. The All Star break and trade deadline were looming, so he had meetings with the team's General Manager about what moves they were thinking of making and which players they were willing to put up for trade. I would sit in on all of them, but Edward instructed me that these meetings were strictly off the record. Because nothing was final until an actual transaction was made, I wasn't allowed to write about what players they might be looking for, or which of their own they were shopping on the market.

My head was foggy and I had a hard time paying attention to the meetings. I made a mental note to tell Edward that nothing would've been on the record anyway; I couldn't remember my name or how to breathe for a significant chunk of the morning. I checked my phone and saw that I had a few text messages from Alice. She was meeting with Jasper for lunch and they invited Edward and me. I glanced up from the tiny screen and took in the sight before me. Edward was sitting at his desk, typing quietly. I cleared my throat. "Edward?"

Without looking up, he held up one long, slender finger. He returned his hand to the keyboard and typed for a few more minutes. I heard him hit one last key hard and then his smooth, velvet voice said my name. "Bella."

"Alice and Jasper are getting together for lunch. They wanted to know if we want to join them," I said softly.

He glanced at the computer screen and I assumed he was checking his schedule. After a moment, he nodded. "Where are they going?"

"Five Guys," I answered with a shrug. "Have you been there?"

The look of astonishment on his face was absolutely priceless. "Are you kidding me, Bella? Who hasn't been to Five Guys?"

I shrugged and smiled. "One of the best burgers I've ever had." I gathered my belongings and followed Edward out the door.

Though the restaurant wasn't crowded, Edward was able to spot Jasper long before I had a chance of seeing Alice. We stopped at the counter to place our orders then made our way over to the table and joined them.

"So," I started after sitting down next to Alice, "what are the two of you up to today?"

"Well," Jasper started, "we got together this morning for breakfast and took the tour of Nationals Park. Since we were so close, we decided to stop here for lunch and figured that if we didn't get in touch with you two it would be a damn shame."

Edward chuckled. "You know you could have called while you were at the park and we could have had lunch there, right? The food actually isn't that bad."

Jasper nodded and smiled. "I know. But Alice here," he gently shoved her shoulder, "has never eaten a Five Guys' burger."

"Until now, Jazz!" she trilled lightly. "So how are you feeling today Bella?"

I took a long draw from my soda. "I'm actually not that bad," I told her. "I managed to make it to the park with five minutes to spare. I even stopped for coffee."

"Which reminds me. Where did you stop for coffee this morning? That might have been the best coffee I've ever had," Edward said.

"The Java Green Café. Best baristas I've ever met," I said. "And their coffee is out of this world." I took a bite of my burger and listened as the three of them continued to chatter. My ears perked up when I heard Jasper questioning Edward about Jane.

"So, _Eddie_," Jasper started, "has Jane offered you anymore favors?" He made air quotes as emphasized the end of his question.

"No, thank God," Edward said with a grimace. "I honestly don't know why she thinks I would ever be interested in her. Did I tell you about the last road trip? She conveniently forgot to book a room for herself and shacked up with me."

"Wait, your assistant goes on the road with you?" I felt a flash of an emotion I couldn't identify right away. _You're not…__**jealous**__, are you, Bella?_

"No, not usually," Edward said and I stifled a relieved sigh. "She went with us last time we went to Philadelphia because she has family there. You'll notice that with some of the staff, Bella. They don't go on every road trip, but if they have friends or family in a specific area they'll go. It saves some of the expense of traveling."

I nodded. "So what kind of 'favors' has Jane offered you?" I asked with a smile.

Edward choked on the French fry he was eating. He coughed for a few minutes while Jasper laughed. "Jane has a bit of a crush on our Eddie here."

"I told you, I hate that name," Edward seethed. "Don't call me that! She suggested that we sleep together in Philadelphia. I misunderstood at first and told her that I didn't think it would be necessary as there were two beds in my room, but she meant she wanted to _sleep with me_." He grimaced again, blushing.

"You're joking, right?" _He's got to be joking_. My eyes were wide as I stared at him.

"Sadly, I'm not. I've often wondered aloud if she realizes that it was sexual harassment to even suggest it, but she doesn't care. Remember what I told you about Break Stuff? I can neither confirm nor deny that I sometimes play it just because she has finally figured out that she should leave me alone when I'm playing it loud enough for her to hear through the door," he said with a smile.

"Sounds like something I've been known to do," I said with a laugh.

"You mean you found someone else who listens to that _awful_ song, Bella? I swear, I thought she was the only one," Alice said, shaking her head.

Jasper laughed. "No, Edward has been listening to that song when he has a bad day since it came out, I think."

"It's a great leave me alone song," I pointed out.

Edward nodded in agreement. "Really! Someone hears the words 'You don't really know why, but you wanna justify ripping someone's head off' and they know better than to bother you. I can still remember the only time Jane came into my office after I'd played it. It was last season. We hit the magic number and the press," he shot a pointed look in my direction, "was all over us. Apparently the front office wasn't doing enough to ensure the team's future."

I threw up my hands in defense. "Don't look at me, buddy. I was writing from box scores that time last season. You were dealing with Mike Newton. He's not a bad guy, but he's passionate about sports. He threw an absolute fit in the newsroom the night that the Nats were mathematically eliminated. It was a sight to behold."

"Katie Casey knew what to do, just to cheer up the boys she knew," Jasper said suddenly.

"You're going to have to do better than the second verse of _Take Me Out to the Ball Game_ if you want to stump me, Jasper." I tossed a fry at Jasper. It went high and landed in his curls.

Jasper pulled the fry out of his hair and glanced at his watch. "Alice, we should get going. We're going to be late." He gathered up their trash in one hand and reached for Alice's tiny hand with the other. "We'll see you two later."

"You should tell Edward about Jacob," Alice called over her shoulder as Jasper led her out of the restaurant.

Edward looked at me curiously and quirked his eyebrow. "Who's Jacob?"

"No way," I shook my head. "You don't have a snowball's chance of getting that out of me right now."

A flash of emotion flickered across his face and though I couldn't be sure, I thought it might be jealousy.

"Oh, come on Bella. I told you about Jane." He whined. _Wait, he's whining? What. The. Hell._

"Because Jasper was going to out you anyway," I said, pointing at him with a fry. "You wouldn't have told me if he didn't bring it up. And really, while we're on the subject… Jane? Ew. Ew. Just…Ew." I shuddered for dramatic effect.

"_She_ hits on _me_," he sneered. "I've been telling her for the past two years that I'm not interested. She just won't drop it. I've been considering telling her I'm gay to see if that will get her off my back. Honestly, I doubt it. She's got a thing for Tyler Crowley, too. I doubt I could finish the sentence before she started dreaming up threesomes."

I snickered. "Wow, you have _such_ a high opinion of your assistant. Ever think of telling someone that she won't let up and having her removed? I mean, I know it's the obvious solution and all, but you're a smart man Edward. Don't over think it."

He actually _blushed_ and stared down at the table, meeting my eyes after a few second. His green ones were smoldering and he gave me a wicked grin. "So how many times has Jacob tried to get you into bed?"

He had removed the straw from his drink and was twirling it through his fingers. I couldn't focus on anything but those fingers and suddenly remembered something he'd said to me the night before. "You play the piano, right?" _Play __**me**__ like a piano, please. No. Stop it, Swan! Co-worker. Co-worker. Co-worker._

He nodded. "Now answer my question. How many times has he tried to get you into bed?"

"Five or six," I said, hanging my head. "Sincelastweek." I spoke softly and rushed, hoping he wouldn't catch it.

"Since last _week?!_" He asked incredulously.

I nodded. "I've known Jake a long time. Come to think of it, he's been trying to get into my pants for a long time. Even made it halfway there one night senior year of high school." Naturally, I blushed.

He snorted. "How does one get halfway into someone's pants, Bella?"

"His hand, you know, it got halfway down the back of my pants before I stopped him. It was very embarrassing. We were drinking and playing beer pong," I paused to giggle. "Actually, I'm really good at beer pong after I've had a few beers. Last time I played, I was so bad the first round. I thought my partner was going to kill me because we nearly lost. The second round, we cleared 5 cups before the other team even had a shot. Anyway, we were playing beer pong and we'd just won a round. He picked me up, spun me around and slid his hand down the back of my pants. Ever since then, he's assumed that I'm the one that got away or some shit like that. Why am I telling you this?" I groaned.

"I can certainly see why he'd think you were the one that got away," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I mean, you let him get halfway into your pants in high school. And I bet you don't stop his constant advances either."

"He's like the Energizer Bunny. He keeps going and going and going. But you have Jane in your life and it seems like she listens as well as Jake. Hey, maybe we should set them up!" I suggested.

"Jane has never gotten halfway in my pants, Bella. She hasn't even gotten close to my pants."

"Bullshit. You shared a room with her in Philadelphia. You mean to tell me she didn't see you out of your pants?" _Two can play this game_.

"She didn't. I never got to finish that particular story. I gave her my room. I stayed with one of the players. Twenty-five man roster and all that," he said with a shrug.

He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't imagining that exact action being done on various parts of my body. _Co-worker. Co-worker. Co-worker. While we're on the subject there, dear Brain, why are you even entertaining these images? It's not like we've known him long enough to be imagining him stark naked and playing with our nipples._ I shook my head to clear it of the very naughty image my brain was currently conjuring of Edward, naked and covered in whipped cream and chocolate. _Shut UP. He's our CO-WORKER._

"Bella? Earth to Bella!" Edward waved a hand in front of my eyes. "Are you in there?"

"Sorry, I zoned out. What were you saying?"

"We should get back to the office." He stood and gathered up our trash.

I shook my head again and followed him out the door and back to the office.

Thankfully, the rest of the day was relatively quiet. Armed with the knowledge that Jane was harboring a futile crush on Edward, I was able to tease him mercilessly when she kept finding silly reasons to come into his office. I wanted to tell her to stop being so obvious, men hate that kind of thing. At the same time, I was _glad_ she was such a screw up. _More Edward for me_.

Obviously, I needed to check my _own_ futile crush on Edward. _You don't know that it's unrequited. He seemed pretty pissed off when you told him about Jacob. Not that you reacted well to the knowledge that Jane nearly saw him out of his pants. Gee Bella, jealous much?_

Edward invited me to walk to the metro station with him and I couldn't turn him down. We were headed in the same direction and it would be rude if I did. Factor in that my legs were shorter than his and I fell behind almost constantly, allowing me to stare at his ass while he walked? _No idea where my shame went, but I'm not missing it. _

I couldn't tell you what we talked about during the short walk. I was too busy imagining my fingers running through his hair, twisting them to pull him in for a kiss, running my tongue up along his jaw and …

"Bella!" Edward jerked me back just before I stepped into traffic. "You really should pay attention to where you're going."

I huffed. "Edward Cullen, are you scolding me? I told you I'm a terminal klutz."

"You bet your pretty ass I'm scolding you. What would Eric say if I told him I let you step into traffic and get creamed by a bus?"

"I don't know. 'Next time push her?'" I shrugged. "He's well aware that me walking around is basically playing with fire." _Wait. He said __**pretty**__ ass. Does that mean he likes my ass? ._

Edward's face was red for the second time today. "Are you blushing again? You did that at Five Guy's when I mentioned having Jane reassigned. What the hell, Edward? Am I embarrassing you or something?"

The glint in his eyes told me that he wasn't embarrassed. He was angry. _The hell?_

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**EPOV**

Bella Swan was going to be the death of me. The universe knew it and, though it didn't think I was onto its little game, I knew it.

The poor woman was a walking disaster. She'd slammed into me on the metro platform, tossing an entire bag of paperwork onto the ground, killed my brand new Blackberry by knocking it out of my hand and sending it clattering onto the tracks below and had a slew of other embarrassing moments. When we'd reached my stop, I'd told her that I'd see her the next day. Chances were I was wrong, but I'd hoped I was right.

I wasn't prepared to see her at the bar that same night. When her friend came up to us, I read the desperation in her eyes; she didn't want Alice to know who I was. I went along with her game; politely introduced myself to Alice. I'd thought I'd never see her again.

She was stunning and she'd blushed more often than any one person I'd ever seen. When she'd offered to pay for the phone she'd destroyed, I hadn't had the heart or guts to tell her that it was only a week old so I'd lied and told her I was due for a new one anyway. The clerk I'd spoken with the next day at the phone store had laughed when I'd told him what happened and gave me a fantastic deal on a new, new phone.

Imagine my surprise when I'd walked into Eric Yorkie's office Friday morning and _she_ was Mike Newton's replacement. I'd known she was a sports writer – I'd noticed a partial article and handwritten notes on the Nationals when I'd helped her gather her paperwork at the metro station. Yorkie had told me that Newton's replacement was a female. He'd assured me that she knew what she was doing. It wasn't a huge leap that I'd managed to avoid putting two and two together. There are several papers in the greater Washington, D.C. area. What were the chances? _What were the chances, indeed._

I'd also known she didn't technically take over for Newton until Monday, but I'd taken her back to the park anyway. I'd given her a brief tour and she'd had another series of unfortunate events. How exactly did she hit herself in the head with a baseball bat, especially when professional baseball players were helping her bat? Perhaps my favorite Bella moment had come shortly after she'd spilled coffee on herself. She'd taken her sweater off and nearly flashed Jane and me in the process.

Saturday brunch with Jasper was one constant in my life, as long as the team wasn't traveling. They were away last weekend, but I'd begged off of the trip. We were below .500, we weren't going to make the playoffs and even with the trade deadline looming there wasn't much to talk about with the media in other towns. Weekends were the only time that my brother could get away from his duties as a history professor at George Mason University.

Once again, there was a surprise run in with Bella. Alice practically danced over to our table to say hello and introduce herself to Jasper. When Alice stuck her tiny hand out and told Jasper that she'd been waiting all her life to meet him, his jaw dropped and his eyes glazed over. After a few minutes, Alice excused herself back to her table. When Mom called Jasper to ask why neither one of her sons had bothered to call her recently, I escaped to say hello to Bella. Things were…Well, they were awkward.

Alice dragged Jasper to their table and we'd joined them for the meal. Their friend Rosalie was convinced that her fiancé would just love us and invited us for dinner the next night, declaring that Bella would cook. I chuckled. Bella was one of the clumsiest girls I'd come across. She caught my little laugh and snapped that she would be just fine.

She was right. Dinner was absolutely fantastic. Though I never would have linked Emmett and Rosalie if I didn't know that they were getting married, their relationship seemed like an easy one. Rosalie wore the pants but Emmett was a fun guy. He'd suggested that Jasper and I join him for a round of golf sometime soon. Jasper agreed, I might have snort laughed into my glass of wine. Neither one of us could golf to save our lives.

Dinner brought about the revelation that Bella was extraordinarily good with song lyrics. Rose, Alice and Emmett tried to stump her by quoting them and seeing if she could guess the song and artist. I had never seen anyone make Jasper blush until Bella refused to tell him what song he was quoting at her before he answered her simple yes or no question. I was shocked to find out that Jasper let Mom pick up around his apartment when she was in town, but I'd laughed harder than the rest at him.

Around 9:00, Emmett excused himself and Rosalie politely kicked us out. Alice had invited us back to the apartment she shared with Bella. I was apprehensive, but Jasper agreed so enthusiastically that I couldn't say no. Bella and I chatted over a bottle of wine and I learned that her taste in music rivaled mine. She'd called me on the text that I'd sent her after breakfast, then teased that I didn't have to ask Alice if I'd wanted her number.

Alice and Jasper did some hefty banging around in her room. I'd held Bella's hand as we walked down the hall to investigate. I didn't know if Bella's line of thinking was similar to mine, but I'd expected to see my brother in a compromising situation, not helping Alice hang art. She'd laughed so hard that her head rested on my shoulder and I could smell her hair – she'd smelled like strawberries. I'd cursed my arm for aching when I had to remove it from its place around her shoulders to help Jasper finish hanging Alice's artwork.

We drank more wine and talked baseball. I'd gotten sentimental when I'd talked about my parents. We'd gotten a little drunk. Okay, I'd gotten a lot drunk. I'd questioned whether the wine and the conversation would make things awkward and managed to hide from her that what I'd really been questioning was whether the fact that I felt a spark of electricity every time I touched her was going to make things awkward. I didn't know if she felt it, but God I hoped so.

She showed up first thing Monday morning with coffee for me and I'd wanted to kiss her. Jane was perceptive and gave us a glare before going over the day's schedule. I'd hoped Bella had paid attention during the meeting we'd had that morning because I hadn't been able to focus on anything other than the way she'd looked and smelled. We'd had lunch with Alice and Jasper, then spent the rest of the day in my office chatting. Jane came in a few times and I'd noticed an amused smile on Bella's face each time. Jasper had let Jane's ridiculous crush on me slip during lunch, Bella had teased me without mercy and I found it oddly endearing.

I'd asked her to walk to the metro station. I didn't know what we'd been talking about, but when she'd nearly stepped out in front of a bus my heart jumped into my throat. I'd scolded her and she'd been angry, reminding me in no uncertain terms that she was a terminal klutz. I might have said "You bet your pretty ass" to her, potentially giving away the fact that I found her incredibly attractive. She'd called me on the blush that crept across my cheeks and I'd feigned anger to avoid the embarrassment I'd felt over my slip.

Her snap brought me out of my thoughts. "Are you blushing again? You did that at Five Guy's when I mentioned having Jane reassigned. What the hell, Edward? Am I embarrassing you or something?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. Does it matter? I kind of just saved your life and all you can do is snap at me?" _Way to fail miserably at being angry with her to cover your slip, Cullen. You sir, are a prize specimen of man and she would be stupid not to throw you down right now and have her way with you on this very public street. _

"Hey, Cullen? Are you going to let go of my arm or does Mr. Caveman need to guide me the rest of the way to the station?" Bella looked annoyed and tried to jerk her arm out of the death grip I still had on her.

I let go and muttered an apology. We walked the rest of the way and boarded our train in silence. As we approached my stop, I turned to offer an apology but she cut me off just as I opened my mouth.

"Don't Edward. Just let go of my arm next time and we'll be fine. For what it's worth, thanks for not letting the bus cream me. I'm kinda happy with where I am right now and it would be a damn shame if it ended." A beat later, when a faint blush crept across her cheeks I chastised myself because she'd obviously caught me staring at her chest_. Way to go! Run her away before you can feel what's making those buttons strain in that absolutely perfect way for yourself. Smooooth move, idiot._

The train lurched and Bella stumbled forward. Her skirt rode up just enough for me to catch a flash of red satin covering her ass. _That color, in that location, is the opposite of stop. _I watched as she tugged the skirt down and blushed further when she met my eyes and realized I'd been staring. I cleared my throat and shifted the messenger bag I was carrying as nonchalantly as possible from over my shoulder to rest against my lap. I hoped she didn't see, but she smirked and I knew I was busted.

I stared at my feet the rest of the ride and rushed through the doors as soon as we got to my stop. "Bye Bella! See you tomorrow," I called over my shoulder. I was so wrapped up in thoughts of Bella that I was home before I knew it. I changed into sweats and went for a run, made myself a quick dinner and placed a few phone calls before collapsing onto the couch to watch _Wild Things_. I was really settling in, getting ready to enjoy the pool scene, when my phone buzzed. It was a text message from Bella and I had no idea what she meant. _Burgundy or purple? What the hell is she talking about? _

I texted back to find out what she meant and her response made every dirty part of my mind cry out. _Now we are so happy, we do the dance of joy!_

_

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_Thread on Twilighted - http://www(dot)twilighted(dot)?f=44&t=6028 - Come visit. I'll be posting teasers and answering questions.

Thanks to juliebee for reading this before I ever got to the lunch and giving me some direction. Thank you to everyone who has shouted out answers to me via Twitter in the past few days. The answers are tremendously helpful, as you may have noticed if I used one of your answers in this chapter. annanabanana is responsible for Edward watching _Wild Things. _

Thank you to GreenEyedGirl17 for rec'ing this on the last update of _Illegal Contact_. Coachward is pretty hot. ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thanks to my masta betas, pkitten21 and TFX. **

**More at the end. I have some people to thank and some stuff to say.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of the other copyrighted material that I've used.**

* * *

I was bound to stop blushing at some point, right? It started when I told Edward that I was happy with where I was and it would be a damn shame if it ended. I didn't regret it – it was the truth. I did, however, regret the way I worded it. Then the stupid train jerked and my skirt rode up giving Edward a flash of my panties and damn if I didn't catch him staring at my ass. I blushed further when he was a touch too slow rearranging his messenger bag to cover the swell in his pants. I smirked because it was nice to know that I had that kind of effect on him, even if I thought it was crazy that a glimpse at my panties had done it.

I opened a bottle of wine as soon as I got home and sat down with a book for the first time in I couldn't remember how long. I got half an hour of undisturbed time to myself before my tornado of a roommate came home and flitted around the apartment getting ready for a date with Jasper.

"Alice, didn't you just spend the entire day with Jasper? Don't you want to stay home and help me finish this bottle of wine?" I waggled my wine glass in her direction for effect. "Participate in a little girl talk? I know I could use some after the day I had."

"Nope! I'm meeting Jazz at his place. He's making me dinner!" Alice called as she slammed her bedroom door shut.

I sighed. _Another night alone._ I could go to Rose's and see if she needed help with any of the wedding stuff, but she probably didn't because Alice was a fantastic party planner.

Alice left a few minutes after she barreled in and I was left in silence again. I set my iPod to shuffle and continued reading. Around 9:00, I looked up from the book, a slow smile spreading across my face. The song wasn't one of my favorites – hell, I didn't really even care for the band – but it reminded me of Edward's face when I caught him staring at my ass.

I grabbed my phone and typed out a quick message.

_Burgundy or purple?_

I knew he would ask what I was talking about, so his response wasn't a surprise. I giggled – _Did I really just giggle like a school girl? _– and typed out my response. What I wouldn't give to see his face when he read it.

_If I didn't act on my addictions, then we couldn't stare while she's in her underwear._

He said he was good with song lyrics, so I hoped he'd know I was quoting a song. My face burned red when I realized that I just asked him to choose the color of my underwear the next day. He gave me a one word response and I smiled. At least he was willing to play along.

* * *

I strode into Edward's office at 9:00 wearing a navy blue skirt and cream button down shirt. He looked up at me from his desk, his eyes raking my figure, taking in my outfit. His face fell the slightest bit when he noticed the length of my skirt – it was longer than the one I'd worn the day before. I smirked at him. "What's wrong, Mr. Cullen?"

He cleared his throat as his eyes snapped to mine. "Nothing Bella. How are you this morning?"

"Doing great," I said with a small smile. He turned back to his computer and I took in the sight of him. I couldn't see his legs, but he was wearing a burgundy shirt and dark grey tie. I smirked and giggled to myself. _Awww, we match. What the hell is this, prom?_

I continued to take in his appearance. His hair was as messy as ever, he was sporting a day's worth of stubble and the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows again, exposing those beautiful forearms. I never understood the fascination that some women had with forearms until I saw Edward's. I watched as his muscles flexed while he typed away and felt my face flush as I considered all the things he could do to me that would make those muscles work that way.

I checked email on my Blackberry and returned a few phone calls before Edward looked up at me and smiled. "Look, I really don't have much to do today. I could stand to get out of here. What do you think? Want to play hooky with me?" There was a playful gleam in his eye and his face broke into a crooked grin.

I nodded, slightly dumbfounded by his grin. "Uh…Sure. I mean, why not? Eric said they're not expecting me back until Friday." _What. An. Idiot._

He stood up, grabbed his keys and grinned. "Great. Come on, then. I drove today."

He led me to the players' parking lot and stopped in front of an old, beat up VW Beetle. The red paint was peeling and I noticed more than a few rust spots. "Bella, this is Victoria."

If I had been drinking anything, it would've come flying out of my nose. "You named your car Victoria? You're kidding, right?"

He looked hurt and shook his head. "If you can't be nice to her, I'm not taking you anywhere."

I tried to stop laughing. I couldn't. "Edward, you _named_ your _car_. How am I not supposed to laugh at that?" I said as I gasped for breath. He pouted and I sighed. _I do not understand why men are so weird about their cars._ "Sorry. I'll be nice to her. Where are we going anyway?"

"What would you say to a trip to the zoo?" he asked.

"That sounds great!" I sounded a lot more overzealous than I wanted to, but I hadn't been to the National Zoo since I'd moved to Washington.

I slid into the passenger seat and laughed again when he started the engine and his stereo started blaring music at me. "I don't think I would've pegged you as a Jason Mraz fan, Edward."

"I told you I had an eclectic taste," he said, tossing his iPod to me. "Why don't you pick something out, then?"

Scrolling through the artists, I grinned. "You _do_ have eclectic taste. The Dixie Chicks? Really? Ooh, Linkin Park and Jay-Z. This mash-up is so underrated." I continued to look and squealed when I found _The FCC Song_ from Family Guy. "Seth MacFarlane is a comedic genius."

Edward laughed. "See, I wouldn't have pegged you for a Family Guy fan. What's your favorite episode?"

"The one with the pancakes," I said, laughing. "You know, the one where Meg pretends that Stewie is her son and he gets put into foster care? 'Click click bloody click pancakes!'" I collapsed into a fit of giggles.

We chatted about our favorite TV shows and before I knew it, we were pulling into a parking lot at the National Zoo. "What do you want to see first?" I asked, more than a hint of excitement in my voice.

"The Giant Panda, of course." Edward locked up the car and grabbed my hand in his, dragging me toward the entrance. The electricity that I'd felt the first day on the metro platform was there again and I wondered if he felt it, too.

We wandered around for a couple of hours, seeing almost everything we wanted to see. The crowd around the Giant Panda was so thick that even Edward couldn't see over it, so we decided to skip that exhibit.

Edward was an odd combination of boy and man when it came to the animals. He'd bounce up and down on the balls of his feet, excited to see everything, then stop and read the placards. He repeated almost everything to me, saving me the trouble of having to read them myself. He laughed at me when I pointed at one of the orangutans using the ropes the zoo had placed between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank. "Look Edward!" I knew I sounded like a five year old, but I was happy. "Isn't that neat?"

We grabbed lunch from one of the carts and walked back toward the parking lot, stopping to eat at one of the picnic tables that overlooked Rock Creek. We sat in comfortable silence while we ate, just enjoying nature and…being together? I wasn't sure if he was enjoying it, but I sure as hell was. I giggled a little when I noticed some mustard from his hot dog on the corner of his mouth. Before I could stop myself, I reached out and rubbed it away with my thumb. As soon as my brain was able to comprehend what my hand had just done, I snatched the offending appendage back and stuttered out an apology.

* * *

**EPOV**

"I…I… God, Edward, I'm so sorry," she stuttered. "I didn't mean to, it was just there and I couldn't let you walk around with that on your face and…" Her voice trailed off and she blushed.

Meanwhile, there was no way I was getting up from the table any time soon. With that brief touch, my cock hardened and I let out the breath I'd sucked in when her thumb grazed the corner of my mouth. "It's okay, Bella. No, really. I appreciate it."

She stood, still obviously flustered. "We should go. I should get home and hold my pillow over my face until I stop breathing because holy _fuck_ that was the most embarrassing –"

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her face down to mine, stopping her rambling the only way I could think to at the moment – I kissed her.

Her lips were soft and sweet and I never wanted to stop kissing her. _The hell are you thinking, Cullen?_ I pulled back slightly and gently kissed her twice more. "Bella?"

"Mmmhmm?" Her hand rested on my cheek and her eyes were half closed.

"I'm sorry." Her eyes snapped open and her skin flushed deeper. "No. I mean, I'm not sorry that I kissed you. Well I am, because this isn't the way that I wanted it to happen, not that I've been thinking about it or anything. I mean, I _have_ thought about it but…Oh fuck, Bella. I don't know what to say."

She stared at me for a moment, eyes wide, face red. Her hand was still on my cheek, her thumb tracing small circles. "Edward, shut up." Sitting back down on the bench beside me, she grabbed my face with both hands, leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine again.

I'd kissed a lot of women in my time, but I'd never felt anything like this. _Do I have to turn in my man card if I admit that I might possibly have butterflies from this?_ It was probably the most chaste kiss I'd ever experienced, but because it was her, I grew harder than I could ever remember being. _Shit. Not leaving until I calm down._

Her lips parted slightly against mine and I tentatively sucked on her lower lip. She moaned softly and her hands moved from my cheeks to the hair at the base of my neck. I let my hands tangle in her hair, and holy _shit_ her hair was silky and soft and everything I thought a woman's hair should be. She pulled my top lip between her teeth and bit down gently.

I took a chance and swept my tongue gently across her lower lip. She parted her lips further and her tongue timidly met mine. I sighed into her mouth, relishing the taste of the sugar cookie she'd just eaten, mixed with the mint of the gum she'd chewed before we'd gotten our food. Our tongues moved smoothly together and I couldn't get enough of her taste. I groaned when she pulled away, knowing that we had to breathe some time, but fighting with the logical part of my brain that was trying to convince me I actually needed the oxygen.

She pressed her forehead to mine and gave me a small smile. "Sorry, had to breathe."

"Oxygen, as a form of life support, is highly over rated," I said with a smirk.

"You're right." She pressed her lips to mine and the world around me ceased to exist again. There was me, there was Bella and there was the annoying little voice in my head who kept telling me that even though this felt incredible, it was too much, too soon and it was going to freak her out.

My dick was waged in an epic battle with my brain. Ace was all for continuing things as they were, maybe stopping long enough to take her home and see about rounding a few more bases. Brain, however, kept arguing that this wasn't fair to her. _Are you sure she even wants this? _

_She's kissing me back, isn't she? Shut up, Brain. _

Bella's ringing cell phone brought us back to reality. _Fuck._

"Hello? Oh, hey Alice. What? No, I'm not at the stadium. Um…Edward and I are playing hooky? The zoo. No. Uh huh. I'll check." She covered the mouth piece of the phone and gave me a small smile. "Alice wants to know if we want to hang out with her and Jasper tonight."

If we were spending more time together outside of work, there was no way I wanted to be anywhere near my brother, especially after this recent development. _Go. You know Jasper and Alice are horny bastards and will eventually disappear into her room. _

I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure, I'm okay with that."

* * *

I had no idea what happened, but sometime between leaving the zoo and hanging out with Alice and Jasper that night, something about Bella changed. Jasper had rented _Monty Python and the Holy Grail _and _Empire Records,_ and I supplied the wine.

Jasper and Alice were cuddled up on the loveseat. I sat at one end of the larger couch, fully expecting Bella to sit near me. She sat on the floor instead, knees curled up to her chest.

"Bells, you okay?" Alice asked.

She nodded and gave Alice a weak smile.

Halfway through _Holy Grail_, there was a knock at the door. Rosalie came over to borrow something and Bella enthusiastically invited Rose and Emmett to join us.

A few hours later we were finished watching the movies, the wine was gone, Rose and Emmett headed home and Alice and Jasper disappeared into her room. Bella busied herself gathering up wine glasses and straightening things up as she passed them. Unless I addressed her directly, she hadn't spoken to me all evening.

"Bella." She grabbed the wine glass that was sitting next to the bare foot I had propped up on the coffee table and rushed toward the kitchen with it. "Bella, come on!" I called after her. "What's wrong?"

I lifted myself from my seat and followed her into the kitchen. She was hunched over the counter, her head resting in her hands. "Bella, what's going on with you?" I asked softly.

"Nothing, Edward. I'm perfectly fine." Her voice cracked a little and when she lifted her head to look at me, the look in her eyes worried me.

"Bullshit. You were fine this afternoon. Actually, you were amazing this afternoon." I smiled at the memory of our kiss.

"Yeah. That." She pushed away from the counter and started rubbing her temples in slow circles. "Edward…" She paused to take a deep breath. "It's…I just don't think…I don't know…That was...I don't think I can do that again."

I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. The annoying voice in my head smugly shouted _I told you so!_ at my dick, and I tried to stifle a groan. "Bella…"

"No, Edward. It can't happen again. We work together and it's just wrong." I wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince herself or me.

I _knew_ that I hadn't pushed her too far; she kissed me back for God's sake. I racked my brain, trying to figure out what had happened to change her mind, but I couldn't come up with anything. "What the... Bella, what's wrong?"

* * *

**BPOV**

"Nothing's wrong, Edward. I just can't...do this," I told him gesturing between us.

I'd be totally lying if I said that the kiss we shared at the zoo sucked. _It was pretty damn incredible if I'm being perfectly honest._

From the moment I met Edward, I'd dreamt what it would be like to kiss him. While I can generally control my mind when I'm awake, when I'm asleep it does whatever it wants. Apparently what it wanted was to kiss Edward, and do so often. Needless to say, when he kissed me, I was shocked. I'm pretty sure I froze for a few seconds before I was able to think over the noise of my brain screaming like a teenage girl.

Thankfully, Alice had called and interrupted before things got too far out of hand. I wasn't a total screw up with guys, I'd dated and even had a few long term relationships. I wasn't the kind of person who just knew that someone was right for me, the way Rose and Alice knew about Emmett and Jasper. At least I didn't think I was.

I would never admit it to anyone – not even Alice, who read me better than anyone – that my attraction to Edward was instantaneous. Everything about him drew me in. The sparkle in his eyes when he laughed with me, not _at_ me, the shock I felt when I put my hand in his that reminded me of an electric current, the sense of calm I felt every time I was around him, and the fireworks that exploded around me the moment we kissed. Even in my head, it sounds contrived, forced, like it can't be true. I knew how I felt and it scared the living hell out of me.

Despite the memories of the way he'd looked at me this morning, I couldn't allow myself to believe he felt the same way I did. The logical part of me said he wouldn't have kissed me if there wasn't _some_ attraction. An even more logical part of my brain reminded me of catching him staring at my ass, the quickly shifted messenger bag, and the fact that he'd answered my silly underwear text and subtly hinted that he'd hoped I'd listened by wearing a burgundy shirt.

"We matched today," I blurted out. _Right. Reminder to schedule your brain to mouth filter for service because it's clearly not working._

"What?" he asked skeptically.

I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks and I shook my head, giggling. "Never mind. I just felt a little like I should be pinning a boutonniere to your suit jacket this morning. Like you were my prom date or something."

I watched his expression go from confused to shock when he realized just what I meant. He blushed and muttered something under his breath.

Images of bad prom pictures I'd seen over the years, including my own, flashed through my head and I couldn't stop laughing. He stared at me, mouth open and eyes wide for a moment before he leaned into the counter and laughed.

It felt so good to laugh this way with him. I knew that I could – and probably would – doubt the attraction that he felt for me until I was blue in the face, but I couldn't deny that he made me laugh and made me feel happier and better than I had in a long time.

I was laughing so hard I was crying. He reached up to brush away one of the tears that had fallen and I sucked in a breath and stilled instantly. The current was back and I watched his eyes darken as his thumb swept back and forth across my cheek. He gently tilted my head up, leaning in to me pressing his lips to mine in a soft, gentle kiss. I had butterflies in my stomach again and had to grab the counter top to keep from fisting my hands in his hair again.

I pulled back slightly. "Edward, I really don't think this is a good idea."

He gave me a crooked smile and used my words against me. "Bella, shut up," he whispered before grabbing my face and pressing his lips to mine again.

* * *

**A/N2: I really didn't want to jump around with the POVs, but it was important for you to see Edward's reaction to the kiss and his reason for doing it. It was equally important to get Bella's internal dialogue after the movie night. I apologize and I hope that I never have to do that again. **

**Thanks to my cheerleaders this week, especially in the past two days. If I've lamented at you how much I suck or showed you parts of this chapter and told you that I think they suck and you've told me to STFU, thank you. **

**Britpacksuccubus gets all the credit I can give for Edward's car.**

**Have you heard about the I Love 80s Music Anonymous One Shot contest? All the info you could ever want is here: www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~naughtyheelsanonymouscontest.**

**Reviews are love. And if you're so inclined, please come play on the Twilighted thread. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Many thanks to pkitten21 and TFX for the beta job. Seriously, you should all thank them. It can't be easy to beta the stuff that I've written after two glasses of Jack Daniels on the rocks.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or these characters. Anything else that is publicly recognizable belongs to whoever is lucky enough to **_**actually**_** own it.**

* * *

Two weeks. Fourteen days. One hundred sixty eight hours. _But hey, who's counting?_

It had been two weeks since that night in Bella's kitchen. The reprieve she granted me that night, which resulted in the hottest make out session I'd ever had, was apparently a one night only performance.

It wasn't like she was freezing me out. She was as pleasant as ever, actually. She spent less time in my office than she had prior to Kissgate '09, as I was affectionately calling it, but she still brought me a cup of coffee every morning and sat in on my meetings. Instead of spending her down time in my office as she had that first week on the job, she spent her time talking with players when they were in town (their wives when they were not), speaking with front office staff and in the miserable excuse for an office Mike Newton had vacated when he stepped down. Each of those things could be attributed to throwing herself into her new job; the fact that she'd refused to be alone with me at all since that night could not.

We were on the second day of a nine day road trip – three games in Denver, four in Houston and the Home Run Derby and All Star game in St. Louis – and I was getting anxious. I'd been on the phone all morning, discussing possible trades with the General Manager of the team, and had only seen Bella in passing as we grabbed our coffee. There were two hours until game time and I was done working for the day, so I decided to watch batting practice.

I knew that Bella had been conversing with our local sports network and doing some TV spots. I thought she'd be occupied with that, so I was surprised to see her lounging in one of the seats just behind the dugout. Her feet were thrown over the seat in front of her, she had a notepad in her lap and was chewing in the end of a pen. I took a seat a few rows behind her and just watched her. She was watching the players intently, scribbling something down on her notepad every few moments.

I took a deep breath and stood, determined to find out why she was avoiding me. "Penny for your thoughts," I said, sliding into the seat next to her.

She jumped and dropped her pen. "Edward! You scared me!"

"Sorry." We sat in silence for a few minutes before I decided to jump in head first. "Why are you avoiding me?"

Her face flushed and she refused to look me in the eye. "I'm not avoiding you. I have a lot of work to do. I really can't wait for next Wednesday. It will be so nice to have a day off."

I nodded in agreement. The following Wednesday was the day after the All Star game and the front office staff who traveled with the team – including Bella, even though she didn't technically work for the team – was given the day off to recoup from the lengthy road trip. "I understand that you're busy, Bella. I was hoping we could have dinner together tonight."

She shook her head. "I can't. I have a phone date with Alice and Rose to talk about the wedding." She paused, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"Now I know you're avoiding me. We're on a plane right after the game to go to Houston."

She rolled her eyes and huffed. "You idiot, I was talking about once we get to Houston. You and I are a lot alike, Edward. You can't immediately sleep after you arrive at a new destination – I noticed that when we got here. Or were you so wrapped up in your drink that you didn't see me sitting at the other end of the hotel bar? The restaurant will probably be closed when we get there, so we can order room service and eat in my room."

I wracked my brain, trying to remember if I'd seen her at the hotel bar the night before. I'd been engrossed in a conversation with Jasper, trying to figure out why Bella was avoiding me. Neither of us could come up with anything and Jasper was inclined to believe that she was concentrating on her new job. "I guess I didn't see you," I said softly. "Tomorrow night would be great."

* * *

We arrived in Houston later than we were supposed to the next night. I thought Bella might cancel on me, but after giving me her room number she headed straight upstairs and asked me to give her half an hour to clean up.

I went to my own room to drop my stuff off and to shower off the smell of stale sweat from the flight. I dropped my suitcase on the bed as soon as soon as I made it through the door and pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to wear. I walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on to let the water heat up while I undressed.

As I climbed into the shower, I couldn't help thinking about Bella. She'd been wearing another one of those damn tight skirts today and she'd looked amazing in it. She'd had to put on a polo shirt for her TV spots and I'm pretty damn sure my eyes nearly popped out of my head when she'd removed her blouse, revealing a lacy white tank top. I would have to remember to ask her what the hell the skirt and tank top were called, because I knew they had some fancy pants name.

Bella never did what I expected her to do. She turned red at the drop of a hat, but had stripped down to practically her bra in front of me without batting an eyelash. _It makes no fucking sense. She won't spend any time alone with me, but she doesn't mind you seeing her naughty bits covered in nothing but a lace? What the hell?_

The thought of her in that tight skirt and tiny top had Ace at attention before I knew what was happening. I knew I was short on time, but there was no way I could go to Bella's room in my current..._condition_.

I closed my eyes against the spray, braced myself against the wall with my right hand and fisted my left around my dick. I flipped through images of Bella in various state of undress in my head, and slowly stroked up and down my length. As I palmed the head, I remembered the feel of Bella's perfect tits under my hand that night in her kitchen.

She had the most fantastic breasts; just enough for me to hold in the palm of my hand, with the most responsive nipples I'd ever had the pleasure to feel. Remembering her moan as I pinched her nipple through the fabric of her bra, I started stroking faster.

_Bella's tongue moved against mine as I tugged at the buttons on her shirt. I managed to get two of them undone and as I moved the fabric aside I ran my thumb along the edge of her bra. She moaned into my mouth and pushed her chest toward me. _

_I ghosted my hands over her breasts and felt her tremble with anticipation. She pulled away from me slightly and whispered my name softly. That was all the encouragement I needed. I took a nipple between the thumb and forefinger of each hand and gently pinched. She fisted her hands in my hair and groaned into my mouth. _

_I moved my hands to her back and ran them along the smooth skin there. Cupping her ass, I gently lifted her onto the counter. Her skirt rode up as she parted her legs and hooked them around my waist, pulling me closer to her. I pressed myself into her and moaned at the pleasant friction._

_I brought my hands back around and gently stroked the soft skin above her bra. I kissed down her jaw to her neck, then her collar bone. If I never got to kiss another part of Bella, I'd be a happy man. Her collar bone fascinated me and I traced my tongue back and forth along it. Gripping my hair tighter, she pulled me back up to her mouth and attacked me again. _

The thought of her tugging on my hair did me in. Groaning out loud, I came in several long spurts against the shower wall. I rested my forehead against my right hand and took a few moments to catch my breath.

Once my breathing returned to normal, I finished my shower, dried off and pulled on my jeans. The phone rang as I was drying my hair. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Bella. I'm going to go ahead and order the food. Any preference?" She sounded exhausted and I briefly considered telling her to go to sleep before my brain and Ace combined to mentally smack me. _No fucking way are you giving up extra time with Bella, asshole._

"Not at all. Just get whatever you think sounds interesting." I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face. I felt more awake after my shower and I was excited to hang out with Bella, to talk with her and find out why she'd been so distant the past couple of weeks. "I'll be done in a few minutes."

"Okay. See you soon, Edward."

I took a few minutes to unpack and set up my laptop on the desk, slid my shirt over my head and pulled on my running shoes. Grabbing the room key, I checked my pockets for my cell phone and wallet, then headed to Bella's room.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was a few doors down from me. _This could be convenient._

I hesitated for a second before raising my hand to knock on the door. Bella jerked it open almost immediately and smiled shyly up at me. "Hey."

I ran a hand through my hair and took a deep breath. "Hey." _Clearly, you two are going to have epic conversation tonight._

"You're wearing a Weezer shirt? What's your favorite album?" Her eyes were narrowed and I felt a little like I was being interrogated.

"Pinkerton. Though I have a soft spot for the Blue Album," I said, knowing it was the obvious answer, as I'd purchased the shirt I was wearing on their Pinkerton tour.

She eyed me curiously, then nodded. "I have a soft spot for _My Name Is Jonas, Buddy Holly _and _Undone._"

"So you have a soft spot for the Blue Album," I deadpanned.

"I guess so," she said with a giggle. She opened the door wider and moved aside to let me in.

I glanced around the room, trying to figure out where to sit without making her uncomfortable. Her room had a single king sized bed, a small sofa and a small desk with one of those chairs that looks comfortable, but is really the most uncomfortable surface you've ever dared to place your ass on.

"Dinner should be here soon. Do you want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure, whatever you want." _Come up with something more interesting to say or do or this whole night is going to be a waste_.

She flipped through stations on the TV, trying to find something interesting to watch. She stopped on an episode of one of the Law and Order spin-offs and flopped down on the bed. She rolled over onto her stomach and propped her chin up on one hand, using the other one to pat the empty spot next to her. "Have a seat, Edward."

I sat on the very edge of the bed, not wanting to give away how eager I was to do exactly as she had and flop down. "So how are you enjoying your first road trip, Bella?"

She chewed on her bottom lip and hummed before answering me. "It's a little stressful. I know nine days isn't that long, but the fact that we're ending in St. Louis for the All Star game is a bit scary. And tomorrow," she laughed softly. "Tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting. They're finishing up a game that they started playing in May, right? I've got to get in touch with Mike because I'd like to read what he wrote for that suspended game."

The knock on the door indicated that our food had arrived and I waved a hand at Bella, letting her know that I'd take care of bringing it in. As I set the huge tray down on the bed, I surveyed what she'd ordered. "What did you do, Bella? Order one of everything?"

She nodded. "Everything looked interesting. I figured we could just pick and choose and to hell with what we don't want." _I like the way this woman thinks._

Neither of us had eaten before leaving Denver for Houston, so we dug in, eating in companionable silence for a few minutes. I heard her take a deep breath and steeled myself for what I assumed was going to be a repeat of the 'We can't do this because we work together' speech.

"I'm sorry I've been so weird the last few weeks. I told you that I didn't want to start anything because we work together, but I don't know...I think maybe we should give it a shot. Why not, right? You only live once and I don't know if you enjoyed that night in my kitchen as much as I did, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Not to mention that Alice has suddenly made it her mission in life to get the two of us together. Damn girl has a sixth sense about relationships or something. She knew the moment she saw Rose and Emmett together that they were going to get married. Told them so, too. Rose told her she was full of shit for a year and that Emmett would never propose. You should have seen her face the night he did it. Remind me to have Em tell you that story, it's hilarious."

"That is not what I was expecting to hear you say at all." _You were wrong, Cullen. How does it feel to admit that? _The little voice in my head was damn annoying sometimes and I generally told it so. This time, however, it was right.

She bit the inside of her cheek, trying to hold back her laughter. Her snickers gave into a full blow belly laugh when she saw that the corners of my mouth were turning up in an attempt to fight off my own amusement.

"Let me guess. You thought I was going for round two of 'this isn't a good idea because we work together'?" she asked, still laughing.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "Given my attitude the past few weeks, I'm not surprised. I swear…my brain has been on overdrive. You should really see inside here sometime. It's like a fun house and a corn maze all wrapped into one." She tapped her temple and smirked at me.

"Can't be any worse than what's up here," I told her, tapping my own temple. "Seriously, though. Why the change of heart?"

"I rarely make split second decisions. I over think _everything_. I weigh the pros and cons of everything – ask Alice. She hates my lists. For the first time, I feel like I don't have to think about something. Even that first day on the metro platform, things with you just felt _right_, you know?

I've been arguing with myself for the last two weeks, Edward. Going back and forth in my head about whether I should ignore everything that I'm familiar with – lists, pros, cons, over thinking – and just go with my gut. I thought that if I stepped away from you, threw myself into my work, that things would be clearer. I was wrong. I've never been so relieved as I was when you sat down next to me at batting practice yesterday. So…I allowed myself to make a rash decision. But I need you to do something for me. I need you to tell me if this is too much, too forward." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I hoped I didn't look as surprised as I felt. This was the second long speech she'd made tonight and while I didn't know what had brought it on, I was thankful for it. "Bella, all I wanted was you to open up and tell me what was bothering you."

She nodded and chewed on her bottom lip again. "Stop that, okay? You're going to hurt yourself." I gently tugged her lip from between her teeth and brushed my thumb back and forth across it. "It would be a pity for you to damage something so beautiful."

I knew she was waiting for my reaction to her speech. Honestly, I couldn't process my thoughts fast enough to give her a better answer than I already had. I was ecstatic that she wanted to give this a chance, astonished that she'd opened up so much to me, and amused that she thought two weeks constituted making a rash decision. I started laughing and her face fell.

"Edward, I…" Her voice trailed off and she looked devastated. When I continued to laugh, she snapped "I don't know why this is so fucking funny to you." She clapped her hand over her mouth and I laughed harder.

"Bella, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the fact that you think agonizing for two weeks over something is making a rash decision."

She gasped, then started laughing with me. "You have no idea how _quick_ of a decision that was for me, actually. Rosalie swears I'll never get married because I'd have to make a pro/con list about saying yes or no if someone ever asks me."

* * *

**BPOV**

I was thrilled that he was laughing. Maybe a little miffed that he laughed right after I asked him to give me a straight answer, but still happy. I decided to revisit the subject while we were both still laughing. "I was serious, Edward. This isn't too much or too forward, is it? I'm kind of out of my comfort zone here."

He shook his head. "Not at all. In fact, it's pretty perfect, if you ask me. It's so _you_, you know? All over the place, I mean," he said quickly when I furrowed my eyebrows together.

"I am not all over the place, Edward Cullen. You take that back." I leaned toward him, gave him what I hoped was a seductive smile and stopped a few inches from his face. "Take it back right now or I'm not moving any closer."

He gave me a lopsided grin and whispered, "You're forgetting something, Bella."

"What's that?"

"I am capable of moving." He cradled my cheek in his palm, smiled wider, and closed the distance between us. His lips were impossibly soft and gentle as they moved with mine. He tenderly parted my lips with his tongue and I sighed contentedly into his mouth.

We had kissed for what felt like hours when he pulled away from me panting, I saw the my smile reflected on his face. He rested his forehead against mine and kissed the tip of my nose. "You're going to be the death of me do you know that, Bella?"

I laid my head on his shoulder and smiled up at him. "Ditto. Would you like to watch that movie now?" I asked.

He nodded and brushed a few strands of hair behind my ear. "A movie would be perfect. Let me move this stuff."

He gathered up the room service tray and placed it on the desk. I grabbed the remote and started looking at the movies for rent. When I found it, I smiled to myself. _Absolutely perfect._ "Ooh, they have _The Natural._ I haven't seen it in ages. Is that okay?"

"Great. It's my favorite." His wide smile was genuine and happy. "Hey, Bella? That tank top you were wearing today…What's the name for it?"

I chucked. "It's called a camisole, Edward."

He arranged the pillows so that he was comfortable against the headboard and held out his arms for me. I crawled over to him and rested my head in the crook of his neck and sighed happily.

He laced his fingers through the hand I had laid on his chest and toyed with a piece of my hair. I was comfortable and relaxed for the first time since we'd left Washington, D.C.

_I could get used to this._

* * *

**I know I said in the thread that I was going to introduce Jake and I did write a good portion of it. It just didn't make the cut, so you'll get to meet him in Chapter 7 and I'm sure that you'll get a kick out of the voice in Edward's head.**

**I can't promise that Chapter 7 will be posted next week. I'm working on a O/S for the I Love 80s Music contest and it kind of owns me right now. All of the information for the contest can be found here: www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~naughtyheelsanonymouscontest.**

**Thanks to pears13 and coldplaywhore for pimping my story. It's really nice to be out at a wedding reception and have no idea why your e-mail is blowing up until you read another author's update and see that they've rec'd your story. Go read their stuff, because it pretty much pwns me.**

**I really love getting reviews. They make me smile and inspire me to write. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Usual thanks to Katie & Trin, my super betas.**

**Usual disclaimer to say that I don't own Twilight or anything else that is publicly recognizable. Blah blah blah.**

**CaptainJezebel, there's something special in this chapter for you. Now go turn your one shots into a multi-chapter fic and make me a happy woman. ;)  
**

* * *

The time on the alarm clock read 6:45. I groaned and rolled over, a plan to attempt to go back to sleep firmly in place. It took a moment for me to register that I couldn't roll over completely because there was a body between me and the most comfortable spot on my bed. _I worked on that damn crook for three years. What the hell?_

My eyes widened and I gasped softly. Edward lay sprawled out on his back with an arm thrown over his face. The other arm was stretched out next to him and he was feeling around for something. "Bella? You okay?" His voice was thick with sleep. He uncovered his face and opened one eye to look at me. "Lay down. We have today off." He gently patted the spot next to him.

"I'm fine," I said quietly. I laid down and snuggled back into the crook of his neck. His arm wrapped around me and pulled me closer to him. He buried his nose in my hair and inhaled deeply.

"You smell good." He sighed contentedly.

I wrinkled my nose and laughed softly. "I smell like airplane. Why didn't I shower when we got in last night? And why are you here instead of your place?" I shouldn't ask. I was happy, thrilled even, that he was here, in my bed.

He stifled a yawn. "Got in too late for you to shower and I was too tired to go home," he said, his hand tracing random lazy patterns on my arm. "Go back to sleep, Bella. It's too early to get up."

I nodded and pressed a kiss to his collarbone. We'd spent every night together since the discussion in Houston, but I'd assumed it would end when we got home. Our plane hadn't gotten in until around 2 a.m. and I barely remembered telling him he was welcome to stay with me instead of attempting to make it home half asleep.

My eyes closed and I drifted in and out of consciousness. It was clear from the hand running slowly up and down my arm that Edward hadn't followed his own advice. He behaved, following an innocent path from my wrist to my shoulder, but after a few passes his movements grew more bold. He changed the angle of his hand on my arm so that as he continued his motions, his fingers barely grazed along my ribs.

My breathing hitched and I ran a hand along his strong back, tracing a finger back and forth just under the waist band of his boxers. I gently scraped my nails along his skin and tangled my fingers in his hair when I reached his neck. "You told me to go back to sleep," I whispered.

"You're distracting me," he breathed into my hair as he palmed my breast in his hand. He moved his hands between our chests and gently tugged my nipple through the fabric of my t-shirt.

I moaned softly. I let go of his hair and slid my hand into his boxers and rested it gently on his hip, thumb drawing small circles. "We really should rest, Edward."

"Mmhmm, whatever you say Sweetheart." His hands continued their exploration of my body and before I knew it, my shirt – _his shirt, actually –_ was crumpled on the floor.

Edward kissed me hard on the mouth. He pulled away and placed open mouth kisses along my jaw, neck and collarbone. I sucked in a breath sharply when he pulled one of my nipples between his lips and swirled his tongue around it. A hand trailed down my stomach and his fingers gently brushed the fabric covering my center.

My hips rose involuntarily against his hand. He slid the flimsy piece of lace down over them and stroked up and down the entire length of my slit with one finger. He circled my clit slowly and then slipped it inside of me. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep quiet and squeezed my eyes closed.

He pressed his thumb to my clit and moved back and forth across it, achingly slowly. I gasped at the contact and my hips jerked again. "It's not nice to tease," I moaned.

"Open your eyes, Bella."

I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me intently, his eyes dark and hooded with lust. "What do you want, baby?" He licked the skin between my breasts, then rested his chin there and waited for my answer.

"You. I want you," I managed to gasp.

His fingers were moving slowly in and out of me, my hips rising from the bed to meet his motions. I gasped when he started kissing down my torso. When his tongue dipped into my naval, I giggled a bit. "This isn't supposed to be funny, Bella," Edward murmured as he kissed and licked the skin of my stomach.

"It tickled," I mumbled.

I threw my head back against the pillow the moment his tongue flicked across my clit. "Oh god, Edward."

He licked and sucked languidly, matching the pace of his fingers. "Please. Don't tease." I picked my head up and looked at him, pleading with my eyes. _Definitely a__in't too proud to beg._

The sight of Edward grinning up at me from between my legs was beyond sexy. I watched him twist his hand around and felt him curl his fingers inside of me, searching for the spot guaranteed to make me fall apart completely. He lowered his head and started flicking his tongue back and forth against my clit. His fingers moved faster and I could feel the tension of my release building in my abdomen. "So…close," I gasped.

My breathing was coming in short pants and I was writhing under his touch, encouraging him with the movement of my body and the sounds I made to please, _please_ keep doing exactly what he was doing. He flattened his tongue against me and licked once, twice before biting my clit and sucking hard.

I felt myself clench around his fingers. My back arched off of the bed and I cried out. "God, Edward! Yes!"

He continued moving his fingers, slowing slightly to help me come down from my orgasm. His tongue licked and sucked as I rode out the waves of pleasure. "Good morning, sweetie?" He smiled and raised an eyebrow playfully.

I tugged his shoulders until he was lying next to me again and sighed happily. "Very good morning."

* * *

"Bella, are you ready to go?" Alice called through my bedroom door.

"I'll be ready in a few minutes, Alice. Relax."

Jasper had moved into a house just outside of the city a week before and Alice was throwing a housewarming party for him. She had planned something elaborate and had been bouncing off the walls of our apartment all morning.

"Come _on_, Bella!" She tapped impatiently on my door. "If you aren't out of there in two minutes, I'm coming in." I heard her try the doorknob. "I don't care if the door is locked. I _will_ find a way in there, Isabella!"

Smoothing my hair, I gave myself a final once over. I was wearing khaki shorts and a royal blue tank top. I'd worn a similarly colored shirt to the All Star game, resulting in Edward pushing me up against the wall in the press box..

"_I really love this color on you, do you know that?" Edward growled softly, running his hands along my back and pulling me tight against him._

_He pressed his arousal into my stomach and I smiled into his kiss. "Remind me to wear it more often," I mumbled against his lips. We only had a few minutes before the__ rest of the __out of town reporters arrived._

_He kissed me hard and pulled away only to lick and suck his way down my neck. "You really shouldn't have said that," he mumbled against my neck. "If you wear this color more often, I won't ever get anything done."_

"Isabella Swan!" Alice's voice brought me out of my day dream. "One minute, then I'm coming in there."

I yanked the door open and breezed into the hallway. "I'm ready, Alice. Do I pass inspection?"

She looked me over and nodded her head curtly. "Acceptable. I'd have put you in a skirt, but this will do." She reached up and tugged the tank top down a bit, revealing more cleavage. "There. All set. Now let's _go_. Is Edward meeting us there?"

I nodded, pleasantly surprised that she hadn't mentioned seeing Edward leave our place earlier that morning. I knew she had to be distracted if she'd let something that monumental – her usual choice of words, not mine – pass without comment.

We were only ten minutes late getting to Jasper's but to Alice, it may as well have been the end of the world.

"You're going to have to help me set things up, Bella. I have hors d'oeuvres to put out, I need to make sure the tent is set up correctly and that the tables are all decorated properly. I should have just listened to Jas when he told me to let the catering company handle this stuff."

She swatted the hand I placed on her forehead and shot me a dirty look when I asked if she was feeling okay.

"I'm _fine_, Bella. Stop it." She pulled up into the driveway of an attractive two story Colonial and gave me a hopeful look. "What do you think?"

I knew my eyes had to be round as saucers. Northern Virginia wasn't known for its low cost real estate and I knew Jasper had to have paid a pretty penny for the house I was looking at. "He bought this?"

Alice smiled triumphantly. "He did. He wasn't sure he wanted to at first, but he decided to just go for it when I told him that I _knew_ it was a good investment. With the way the market is right now, he got it for a total steal."

She led me around the side of the house into the expansive backyard. There was a large deck coming off the back of the house and an in-ground pool surrounded by a stone patio. The yard gave way to woods, which cast shade over everything.

I spotted Jasper leaning against the deck railing, beer in hand, talking with an attractive older man. I nudged Alice, gestured in their direction and raised my eyebrows.

"That's Carlisle."

I shook my head slightly and her eyes widened. "Jasper's father," she prompted.

Oh_._

_Oh. That's Edward's father._ _Shit. No one told me they were coming._

"I didn't know his parents were coming," I choked. My breath was coming fast and hard and I knew I was on the verge of a full blown freak out – _f__or absolutely no reason. It's not like you've been seeing him that long._ _I'm going to be arrested for murder after I get my hands on Edward. I would have dressed better if I knew they were going to be here._

Alice snorted. "Are you so oblivious that you didn't think Jasper's parents wouldn't come to their son's housewarming party? Didn't Edward tell you?" She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bar. I was vaguely aware of her asking for a glass of wine and her shoving it into my hand. "Breathe, Bella. You cannot have a panic attack at the thought of meeting Edward's parents – first impressions and all that jazz."

I downed the glass of wine and asked for another, which Alice promptly took from me. _Some best friend __**you**__ are, Alice Brandon._

"Oh thank God you're here," Alice said, looking over my shoulder.

"Nice to see you too, Alice."

I whipped around at the sound of Edward's voice and his eyes widened. "Hi Bella," he said cautiously. "Having a good time so far?"

"Did you forget to tell me something?" I jerked my thumb over my shoulder.

Edward opened his mouth to answer me but was interrupted when someone called his name. We turned together and his face lit up at the sight of a beautiful woman walking toward us. Her hair was the same color as Edward's with a bit of grey sprinkled throughout and I realized this must be his mother.

"Hi Mom," he said. He draped his arm over my shoulders and I gave him a dirty look. He rolled his eyes at me. "Be nice," he muttered out of the corner of his mouth. _Oh, I'll be nice. To her. You're in so much trouble._

"Hi Sweetheart. It's so good to see you!" She reached a hand up and smoothed his hair down. Her eyes twinkled and her smile grew wider. "Who is your friend, Edward?"

"Mom, Bella. Bella, Mom."

Most of the time I liked that Edward could be a man of few words. This was not one of those times.

I took a deep breath and stuck my hand out. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Cullen."

She waved a hand in the air. "Mrs. Cullen is my mother-in-law. Please, call me Esme. Have you met my husband?" she asked as she pulled me toward the deck by the arm.

I'd been doing so well with the klutz stuff. I hadn't fallen and flashed my underwear in days, I'd only dropped a notebook once and I had only tripped a few times. I knew I was pushing my luck, so I wasn't exactly surprised when I tripped going up the stairs and came down hard on my knees. "Fuck!"

My eyes widened and I covered my mouth in shock. _Crass enough to curse in front of his parents? Win, Bella. Pure. Win._

"Second steps are forgotten, will you tell me how they go?" Jasper asked with a smirk.

"Now is not the time to quote Matchbox Twenty lyrics at me," I snapped, glaring up at him. I stood up and felt a trickle of warmth near my right knee. I knew I was bleeding and I cursed again, this time under my breath. "Can I have a towel or something?"

Jasper tossed me a clean towel from beside the grill. I sat down on the stairs and pressed it to my knee, grimacing a bit at the sting.

"Let me take a look at that." Carlisle said.

"I'm pretty sure it's nothing. I'm kind of used to this," I said with a smile. I took the liberty of studying his appearance – _Okay, fine. Ogling him._ – while he looked at my knee. He was handsome, but I knew that before meeting him. Rosalie held a job at the hospital where he worked and I remembered her telling me all about Hot Dr. Cullen the day she'd met him. His hair was more grey than blond and his eyes were the same shade of blue as Jasper's.

He looked over the wound and declared that all I needed was a little antiseptic and a band-aid. Jasper ran inside to rummage through his medicine cabinet and came out with Neosporin and a Sponge Bob band-aid. Carlisle cleaned and dressed the cut. "I feel like I should ask you to kiss it better," I said, gesturing to the bandage. "Jasper, why in the world do you have Sponge Bob band-aids?"

He shook his head and shrugged. "I think they were on sale."

I turned back to Carlisle. "Thank you. I'm used to bumps, bruises and cuts but it's nice to be taken care of every once in a while."

"My pleasure. It's nice to meet you, Bella." He took my hand and helped me off the step I was sitting on. "Why was Jasper quoting song lyrics?"

I blushed again. "It's silly, really. I'm good with lyrics. If you quote a lyric from a song, I can probably tell you title and artist."

Carlisle smiled the same wide grin that Edward gave me when he was excited about something. "Come on, come on, won't you get me to my room."

I blinked a few times. _I know__ that__ I know this song._ "Um…I swear I know this."

Jasper chuckled. "Dad, if you manage to stump her I will buy you a bottle of Veuve."

"He hasn't stumped me yet, Jasper. I just need a minute to think about it. It's um…"

"Edward! You might want to come over here! I think Dad stumped Bella!" Jasper called.

Alice and Edward turned toward the deck and smiled. "Not possible, Jasper. She'll get it eventually," Alice called as they headed toward us.

"Got it!" I said just as Edward reached my side. "Creedence Clearwater Revival, Travelin' Band."

Carlisle confirmed that I was right and told Jasper he was off the hook for the champagne. The six of us chatted for a bit; Carlisle and Esme entertained Alice and I with stories of Edward and Jasper as young boys. There were the typical stories of walking in on masturbation and being caught playing doctor. Jasper's complexion was roughly the color of a fire engine when Carlisle told us that his first doctor playmate was one of the boys in the neighborhood. The best story of the day was the one Esme told about Edward running around the house in nothing but G.I. Joe underwear, a pair of her best heels and lipstick.

Edward, apparently desperate to change the subject, asked if I'd like to go for a swim. Though it was a beautiful day, I was starting to get uncomfortably warm so I agreed enthusiastically and headed inside to change into my suit.

I had just emerged from the house when I heard Alice screech "Say it with me, Edward. SUNLIGHT!" I watched her snatch the bottle of sunscreen out of his hand. "60 SPF? Really? You need to get some sun, tan a little."

"I'd rather not get skin cancer, Alice," Edward said, grabbing the bottle back from her and tossing it to me. "Would you mind getting my back?"

He turned his back to me and looked over his shoulder to smile at me when I hesitated. "I promise not to bite, Bella," he said with a wink.

I squirted some of the lotion into my palm and rubbed my hands together to warm it up. "Alice is right, Edward. You really should get at least _some_ sun. You're practically translucent."

I started working the sunscreen into his skin and my hands tingled with every pass across his muscular back. I massaged his shoulders gently and felt him relax under my touch. My hands worked down his back in soft, soothing motions. His chin sunk into his chest and he sighed contentedly. "That feels really good babe," he said softly.

I swatted him on the ass playfully. "Your turn to do me."

He spun around to face me, his shocked expression quickly turning smug. He put some of the lotion in one hand, then made a gesture with one finger to spin around. As soon as my back was to him, he started gently massaging my shoulder blades. He rolled his hands over my shoulders and down the top of my arms. On the next pass, his moved his hands so that his fingers grazed along my collar bones.

I moaned softly and he leaned in to whisper in my ear, "I told you it felt good." He moved his hands from my shoulders to my lower back where a sliver of skin was exposed between the top and bottom of my swim suit. He slid a finger along my lower back and gripped my hip to pull me back against him. "You look amazing in this, do you know that?"

His other hand wrapped around my waist and spun me around. His head tilted toward mine and he flashed me his playful, crooked grin. "You'd look amazing out of it, too."

Before I could respond, he picked me up over his shoulder and ran toward the pool.

"Edward, don't. Don't you dare!" I squealed, pounding my fists into his back.

He deposited me unceremoniously into the deep end of the pool. I coughed the water out of my lungs after I surfaced. "You're going to pay for that, Cullen."

He reached a hand out to help me out of the water and I pulled the oldest trick in the book. I braced a foot against the wall and pulled with all of my might. He gasped and then tumbled head first into the water behind me. I felt his arms wrap around my legs and I barely had time to catch a breath before he tugged me back under.

We were both laughing when we came up for air and we spent the next half hour splashing and playing in the water. Alice stopped by to tell us that we would be eating soon, so we climbed out of the pool and wrapped ourselves in towels.

We were headed back to the house to change, hand in hand, when I spotted a familiar face in the crowd, one I hadn't seen since before we left for the road trip and definitely one I wasn't expecting to see here.

_What the hell is Jake doing here?_

I shook it off, convinced I had seen someone who just _looked_ like Jake. Surely Alice had told Jasper about Jake after selling me down the river at lunch a few weeks earlier. They would have told me if he was invited. _Right?_

Emmett and Rosalie showed up just as we were sitting down to eat. Jasper and Edward immediately pulled Emmett aside to talk about whatever men talk about when they ignore women. Rosalie and Alice assaulted me with wedding talk, insisting that I go with them to whichever appointment Rosalie had this weekend.

An hour later, I felt a migraine coming on and asked Alice if I could borrow her car. Edward said he'd take me home to rest, so I headed inside to gather my things.

"Jake! What are you doing here?" I asked, surprised to see him in the house. _Danger! Abort! Get the hell out of here!_

"I work at GMU, Bells. Jasper invited me. It's so good to see you!" He picked me up and spun me around before pressing his lips to mine.

I was stunned and frozen. Edward's voice woke me from my shock. "Bella, Alice and Rosalie asked me to come find you."

I pushed against Jacob as hard as I could and tried to free myself from his grasp. The more I fought, the tighter he held me.

"Apparently there's some wedding detail that -" Edward stopped mid-sentence and Jacob finally, _finally_ released me.

"You son of a bitch!" I said, kicking his knee in an attempt to free myself. "Put me down!" Edward turned on his heel and darted out of the room.

Jacob instinctively reached for his knee and dropped me in the process. I took off down the hallway after Edward. "Edward! Wait!"

* * *

**::sigh:: So Jake's been introduced. Tell me in your review how much you hate me for leaving it like this. [See what I just did there?]**

**Thanks to the usual suspects on Twitter. Special thanks to fiberkitty and faithisobelle for giving me a couple of hilarious scenarios to embarrass the boys with. You two will never know how hard I was laughing while reading those tweets - my husband officially thinks I'm insane.**

**I post teasers and such in the thread on Twilighted. I'm taking special requests for outtakes for this fic, too... So if there's something you'd like to see, visit and make your requests.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Usual thanks to Katie & Trin, my super betas.**

**Usual disclaimer to say that I don't own Twilight or anything else that is publicly recognizable. Blah blah blah.**

* * *

I was sick to my stomach. Walking into that room and seeing that asshole with his hands on Bella, when she so clearly didn't want him to touch her; the entire situation just disgusted me.

Leave it to me to pussy out and walk out of the room when she needed me. It wasn't a pussy move though, not really. I did what I had to do. I wanted to beat the hell out of him, make him bleed and break him, but he was a big fucker and I honestly didn't know if I could take him. I didn't want to fight with Bella and I certainly wasn't going to cause trouble at my brother's party. So while it might have sucked that I walked out on Bella, in that moment, it was the right thing to do.

"Edward! Wait!" I heard her call. I stopped short of the door leading to the deck, but didn't turn around.

"Edward, you have to let me explain," she said.

"You don't have to explain anything, Bella." I tried to keep my voice calm and level.

I turned to see her blinking rapidly, unshed tears shining in her eyes. "You…Please…I need…I just…It's not what it looks like. I com – "

"You weren't expecting it. It's not your fault. _He_ kissed _you_. Yeah, I know," I said flatly. My voice sounded hollow, dead even. I had to find a way to convey to her that I knew this wasn't her fault, I wasn't angry with her at all.

I'd be lying to myself if I tried to say it didn't hurt to see her that way with him. My heart clenched in my chest when a single tear slid down her face. "Bella, I'm not angry with you," I said, reaching up to wipe the tear away with my thumb. "I wasn't trying to be difficult when I said I knew it wasn't your fault. You told me that he's been hitting on you forever."

She sniffed. "Really?"

I gave her a half-hearted smile. "Really. I'm sorry I left you like that and I'm pretty fucking upset that you were clearly struggling and he wouldn't let you go, but this isn't the time or place for me to go off on him. Have you even seen him since we started -?" I waved my hand between the two of us.

She shook her head. "I haven't seen him since just before we had lunch with Alice and Jasper. I didn't even know he'd be here today. I saw him before we sat down to eat, but there are so many people here that I wasn't even really sure it was him. I'm so sorry, Edward. I would have warned you, I swear."

I pulled her against my chest and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I know, Bella. I know." She buried her face in my shirt and I felt her shoulders shaking."What's wrong?"

She was crying again when she pulled away to look at me. "Can you find me a dishtowel and some ice? Do you think Jasper would mind if I crashed somewhere for an hour or two? My head really hurts. There's no way I can get in a car without getting sick right now."

"I'm sure he won't mind. Why don't you sit down and I'll get you some ice." I guided her to the island in the center of the kitchen and helped her onto one of the stools. She put her head in her arms and sighed a little. I poked my head out the door and called Jasper over to tell him what was going on. He followed me inside, grabbed a towel and some ice for Bella and motioned silently for me to follow him.

"Sweetheart? Jasper's got your towel and ice. I'm going to take you to lay down now, okay?" I cradled her in my arms and followed him up the stairs to one of the guest rooms.

After tucking Bella in and closing the shades at her request, I walked back outside. The crowd had dwindled significantly and I felt better with the decision I'd made while taking care of Bella. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were all sitting around a table on the deck, chatting with Jacob. I grabbed a beer and took a seat. I got a small half smile from Alice and Rose mouthed _thank you_ to me - they were familiar with Bella's migraines and it was clear that they were concerned.

I couldn't pay attention to the conversation. My thoughts were focused inward, on the anger boiling just below the surface. Jasper inclined his head in my direction and quirked an eyebrow at me. My kid brother read me better than anyone and I knew I wouldn't be able to hide this from him, no matter how hard I tried.

When the conversation lulled, I cleared my throat. "Jacob, I know we haven't been formally introduced, but do you mind if I have a word with you?"

He nodded and I was happy to see nervousness flit briefly across his face. I stood and walked toward the stairs, pausing to make sure Jacob was actually following me. When I reached the yard, I walked toward the pool, smiling at the memory of what had happened there just a few hours earlier.

I took a swig of my beer and turned to face Jacob. I took a deep, steadying breath and dove headfirst into the conversation.

"While normally I wouldn't speak for Bella, in this situation I feel like I can. It would be appreciated if you would back the fuck off. What you just did in there was completely inappropriate and if you do it again, I can't promise I won't beat the hell out of you."

I'm not an intimidating person. At all. Jacob stood a good half a foot taller than me and was much more muscular than I could ever hope to be. I didn't expect him to comply instantly with my request but I did hope he would at least see the error of his ways.

"I've known Bella for a long time," he sneered. "Long enough to know when she's interested and when she isn't, _Edward_. She isn't."

_Big dumb oaf say what?_

"I'm going to have to disagree with you, _Jacob_. She seemed very interested when she was screaming my name this morning."

His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped.

_Check. And. Mate._

"So I trust we've come to an agreement? You'll back off? I want you to know that I'm not a jealous person, Jacob. I don't care if the two of you are friends. But when you do stupid things like restrain her when she so obviously doesn't want to be restrained, I'm going to speak up." I was pretty damn proud of myself for keeping my temper in check.

"Yeah, whatever," he mumbled.

We walked back to the deck and rejoined the crowd there. Jacob excused himself, telling Jasper he had some work to do for his course and that they'd have to get together for lunch next week.

The rest of the party guests had left, so when he was gone, four sets of eyes turned and focused on me. I was expecting Jasper to jump in first, but Rosalie beat him to it.

"What the fuck, Edward? You take care of Bella, come out here all moody and chase Jacob away. What happened?" she snapped. "They've been friends forever, you know that?"

"I went in to get Bella, like you asked. I found Jacob and Bella in a rather compromising position," I said with a sigh. "He was kissing her."

Alice gasped, Rosalie's shoulders slumped forward and Emmett and Jasper just gave me a sad look.

"It's really not that big of a deal." Emmett's eyes widened at me. "No, really. It's okay. Did I want to beat the shit out of him? Yeah, I did. But have you seen the size of that dude? No way was I going to fight with him. Especially not today." I gave Jasper a pointed look and finished my beer.

"Wow," Alice breathed. "That's really big of you, Edward."

I shrugged and smiled. "Like I said. No big deal."

* * *

Bella was stressed. Any time she gnawed on her lower lip like that, I knew that something was up. I wanted to ask, but I knew what her answer would be. She'd tell me she was fine, nothing was wrong and I shouldn't worry about her. _Easy for her to say_.

I briefly wondered if she was worried about _us_. The nature of our jobs made it difficult for us to be us. We couldn't spend too much time together while working, we rarely sat in on the same meetings anymore and we couldn't be seen going into or coming out of the same hotel room. I knew our jobs were safe, but Bella was another story entirely. Being a female sports reporter was hard enough for her, she shouldn't think she had to worry about her job because she was dating me.

I reached up to tug her lip from between her teeth. "Stop. You're going to make it bleed," I said softly.

I flopped back onto the bed and watched her as she worked. Her brow was furrowed in concentration and her glasses were sliding down her nose. Her fingers banged away at the laptop keyboard; she was desperate to finish what she was writing so that we could spend time together before the game tomorrow. First pitch was at 7:05, so we'd have to arrive at the park around 3 p.m.

"Give me five more minutes, Edward. I'm nearly done. I really hope they can pull off a win tomorrow. I know they're not the best team in the world, but I hate writing this depressing crap," she muttered, still typing furiously. She paused to push her glasses up her nose and smiled softly at me. "Five minutes. I promise."

I nodded and flipped through channels on the TV. There was nothing good on this late, so I settled on local news. The weather was going to be nasty all weekend, but I knew that. The humidity was ridiculous and the temperature would range from the mid 70s to low 90s.

I must have dozed off during the weather report because I jolted when Bella slammed her computer shut.

"Done!" she declared happily.

She stood up from the desk and stretched her arms above her head. Her shirt rose to reveal a sliver of her stomach and my breathing hitched. I'd seen her in every state of undress but it seemed like the _less_ skin she revealed, the _more_ turned on I got. I felt a growl low in my chest and pushed myself up to scoot to the edge of the bed. I grabbed her waist, pulled her between my legs and rested my cheek on her stomach.

"You're all done? Does that mean phones off time?" I asked softly. Bella had created the 'phones off' rule after a particularly embarrassing moment for both of us a week after Jasper's party.

We were in her bedroom, spending some quality time together when her phone rang. She _thought_ she'd pressed ignore as she reached for a condom, but Alice had gotten an earful of our intimate activities. Alice was able to laugh it off, but Bella and I weren't so lucky. The next day, Bella declared that our phones had to be turned off when we were spending time alone.

She nodded her head and smiled. We each reached for our phones and turned them off before she settled onto the bed next to me. She grabbed the remote control out of my hand, flipped through the channels and settled on _Meet the Parents_. We watched in silence for a few minutes, arms and legs wrapped around each other. I pressed as kiss to her head and sighed happily.

She tilted her head up and gazed into my eyes, a content smile on her face. "Hey, you," she whispered. She lifted herself up on one arm and used her other hand to caress my cheek. "I've missed you."

"Baby, I've been with you nearly every second for the last three days. What do you mean you've missed me?"

"I know we've been together physically," she said with a sigh, "but that's Work Edward. I've missed My Edward."

She had a point. The last few days had been particularly hectic for me, so despite being in the same location as her, I was often off meeting with someone or on my phone, talking things over with the team's general manager.

"Lucky for you, Team Edward is gone. I'm just Your Edward," I said, kissing her nose playfully.

Her hand guided my face to hers and she kissed me gently.  
_  
__Too bad for her I'm not in the mood for gentle tonight_.

I shifted to my back and pulled her on top of me. We stayed that way, just touching and kissing for a while before I'd decided that I'd had enough and tugged her shirt over her head. Her bra quickly followed and I pushed her away from me so that I could spend a few moments kissing and licking her breasts.

My lips captured a nipple and I spent several minutes licking and sucking it before moving on to the other. I kept my eyes on her the entire time. Her head was thrown back, her hands remained still on my chest and she made the most beautiful noises. She pulled away from me and settled herself onto my thighs. She quickly unbuttoned my shirt and pants then lifted herself off of me so that I could remove them.

"You went commando today? _So _glad I didn't know that at the game," she muttered.

She pressed kisses across my chest and her hands roamed along my sides, her fingertips grazing lightly over the sensitive skin of my hips. She leaned down and placed a kiss on the head of my cock. Her eyes rose to meet mine and she gave me a wicked smile before flicking her tongue out and taking my entire length into her mouth.

Her head bobbed up and down, the sensation of her mouth on me overwhelming. "Oh my god, Bella. That feels amazing."

I groaned when she pulled away from me. "Don't stop, Baby."

She grabbed my hands and placed my fingers on the button of her pants. "I think I'm a little over dressed for this evening's activities, don't you?"

My fingers made quick work of her fly and I shoved her pants down over her hips. _Looks like I'm not the only one who went commando today_.

Bella pushed against me and wiggled out of her pants, then eased herself onto me. I moaned her name as she slid along my length. She stopped when I was fully sheathed inside of her and leaned in to kiss me. I grasped her hips and pulled her almost all the way off of me before thrusting my hips up against hers.

I slipped out of her just long enough to flip her onto her back. We both sighed at the regained contact and started moving together. I rested my weight on my forearms and buried my face into her neck, kissing and nipping at the flesh there.

My hips rocked against hers and we climaxed together, the sound of our pleasure filling the room. I collapsed on top of her, murmuring senselessly into her shoulder.

When I regained my composure, I laid down beside her and pulled her into my arms. We talked until she drifted off to sleep.

I lay there, stroking her hair for a long while. Though we'd only been together a short time, tonight I knew. I was in love with her.

* * *

**Couple of housekeeping things: This chapter was shorter than usual. My apologies. I also need to let you know that updates are probably going to come more like every ten days from here on out. **

**Thanks to the usual suspects on twitter, to xtothey for letting me bounce an idea off of her, snshyne for reading & reviewing all of the chapters in the past two days. NanMcCullen gave me the weather in Cincinatti for the weekend that B & E were in town. Thank you to coldplaywhore & tasha0259 for pimping me on your blogs. I honestly have no words to express how excited I was about that.**

**Final note - Go here (www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~NaughtyHeelsAnonymousContest) to read all of the I Love 80s Music O/S entries. Mine is in there somewhere! ;)**

**Things I'm reading this week: _3, 2, 1_ by heatherdawn, _Living Backward_ by ciaobella27, and _Hand In Glove_ by WindyCityWonder. **

**So how do you think AceWard handled the Jacob situation? Good/bad/ugly, I wanna know. **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Usual thanks to Katie & Trin, my super betas. These ladies were **_**beyond**_** helpful this week. **

**Usual disclaimer to say that I don't own Twilight or anything else that is publicly recognizable. Blah blah blah.**

**I wouldn't normally do this but someone asked me for the recipes from Chapter 3 a while ago in a review. I can't find it for the life of me, so I apologize for not having sent them. Can you please PM me so that I can get those out to you? I'm so so sorry.**

**

* * *

**

It had been an interesting couple of weeks. We spent a lot of time on the road and Edward and I were now official. The majority of our time we just talked with each other while on planes, trains and buses between cities and we had some of our best conversations on red eyes.

The party at Jasper's house was a favorite topic of conversation for me. I analyzed everything about it – swearing in front of his mother moments after meeting her, feeling very much like his father was flirting with me while he cleaned up my scraped knee and the Jacob situation.

I thought that he'd have flipped out when he saw Jacob forcibly kissing me, but he took it relatively well. I wasn't happy when Edward told me that he'd clearly seen me struggling and walked out of the room anyway, but when he explained to me that he didn't think it was appropriate to start a fight at his brother's party, I'd understood.

My struggle with Jake hadn't helped my migraine. Edward had been so _sweet_ taking care of me that I'd actually fallen asleep despite my worries over leaving Edward to deal with Jake on his own, but when I woke up Edward looked completely unscathed so I assumed there hadn't been a fight. When I'd asked Edward what had happened, he told me that he'd talked with Jake about it and they'd come to an agreement. I figured that when the time was right, I'd corner Alice or Rosalie and find out what they knew.

Between work, Rosalie's upcoming wedding and the thing with Jacob, I had a lot on my mind. Then there were the butterflies in my stomach every time I so much as thought of Edward. I'd recognized it happening the first time we kissed, but chalked it up to first kiss jitters. They hadn't gone away though and were starting to become prevalent even when his name popped up on my caller ID.

It had taken me weeks, but I'd finally realized what they meant on this last trip - I was in love with him. It hit me one night at dinner; we were talking about kids and he mentioned that he wanted two or three, no more than that. I never fancied myself a kid person, but I could imagine having them with him. I couldn't tell him that, though. It was far too soon in our relationship; I didn't want to scare him.

We'd only been gone three days, but I had one day at home before we left for Philadelphia and New York, then a few games at home before Rosalie and Emmett's wedding. So I was relieved to be home and able to sleep in my own bed for a night because spending time with Edward after the games really screwed with my sleep schedule and I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was shower and go to bed early.

I had just walked through the door when Alice assaulted me with a barrage of questions.

"Bella, did you check the mail before you came up? Were there any RSVP cards for the wedding? You _are_ going to be in town that weekend, right? How was your trip? Did you and Edward have any time alone together?" She snickered after her last question.

I sighed heavily. "Yes, no, yes, tiring, yes."

The wedding was fast approaching and Alice was on a tirade about people who hadn't RSVP'd. I was exhausted and didn't want to deal with her, so I fixed a smile on my face and nodded when I deemed it appropriate.

I walked into the kitchen while she chattered away, opened a bottle of wine and poured two glasses. When she finally shut up long enough to take a breath, I handed one to her. "Shut up and drink, Alice. You need it and god knows if I'm going to listen to this shit, I need it."

"I know you're getting laid, Bella, so what's with the attitude?"

_Whoops. Pissing off the best friend? Probably not the best thing to do as soon as you walk in the door._

"Alice, I just got back from one hell of a weekend. I would like to relax for a few minutes before you jump all over me with wedding plans. Speaking of which, where the hell is Rosalie and why isn't _she_ the one going off on me about people not RSVPing? Never mind, don't answer that." I waved a hand in the air. "Can't imagine what you're going to be like with your _own_ wedding," I muttered under my breath.

"I'm going to be a thousand times worse and you're going to be there for every fucking second," she sneered at me.

_Annnd she's developed super human hearing since I started traveling. Damnit_.

"Rosalie will be here in half an hour and we're going out."

I started to protest, but she held up her hands and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Don't you even _dare_ think of arguing with me, Isabella. We're going to dinner, we're going to discuss the wedding and then you are going to tell us every single dirty detail of your trip."

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and shook my head. "I don't think so, Alice. No way am I discussing my sex life. Even if it is amazing," I said with a happy sigh.

Instead of saying anything, she gave me a wicked smile and I knew there was no way in hell I was going to get out of sharing _something_ with them.

"Fine," I grumbled. "I'm going to take a shower. I need to wash the airplane stink off."

I could hear Rosalie and Alice talking when I was through in the bathroom. Wrapping my towel around me, I eased the door open to sneak down the hall to my room. I took two steps before slamming into something hard and warm.

"Christ, Edward. Didn't I just leave you at the airport? What the hell are you doing here?"

His hands rested on my bare shoulders and he smiled down at me. "Jasper called and said we're going out tonight and to meet him here."

"He called you thirty seconds after you got home from being on the road to ask you to come out? Ohhh, I'm going to kill her," I said. I stalked into my bedroom and pulled my favorite jeans out of my closet. "If she thinks I'm dressing up for an ambush, she's got another thing coming."

I heard my door shut and spun around to see Edward leaning against it with a predatory look on his face. "I don't think you need to dress at all for the ambush you're facing right now."

"What the hell are you talking about Edward?" I'd barely begun to speak when he pushed me back onto my bed. The towel I'd been holding closed with one hand fell open, leaving me completely exposed. "Sweetie, I don't think we have time for this."

He pulled his t-shirt over his head and quickly dropped his pants and boxers. "I can be quick if you can," he said, grinning at me.

_Mother of all that is holy._

He climbed onto the bed next to me, teasing me with his fingers and I moaned. His eyes shined with lust as he put his free hand over my mouth. "Shhh. The girls don't know I'm here," he whispered.

His hips ground into mine and I bit my lip to keep from crying out. I nearly drew blood when he positioned himself above me and slipped inside.

Edward buried his face in the crook of my neck and groaned softly. "You have no idea how good this feels, Bella."

My fingers tangled in his hair and I tugged gently until he lifted his face to look at me. "I think I do," I said as my hips lifted off of the bed to meet his thrusts.

When he could tell that I was close he kissed me hard, muffling my cries of pleasure with his mouth as we climaxed together.

* * *

We emerged from my room 45 minutes later, wearing matching grins. Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper were all seated on the couch watching TV.

"It's about time!" Rosalie exclaimed. "I was ready to send a search party in there after you. Oh. Hi Edward." She grinned widely. "Alice, I think you were wrong about why Bella was taking so long," she called in a sing song voice.

"Has she finally made an appearance? Jasper have you heard from - Hi, Edward. When did you get here? And who let you in?" Alice asked, eying him suspiciously.

"Jasper called me just after I dropped Bella off and mentioned something about going out. I turned around and came back to save time," he said with a grin. "Emmett let me in. I think you and Rose were in the kitchen discussing centerpieces or something."

"What did you think was taking me so long Alice?" I asked.

"Never you mind, Bella. It's not a big deal. Come on, everyone," she cried, clapping her hands.

Alice dragged us to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Predictably, the three guys started talking sports while Alice and Rosalie were discussing wedding details. _Again_.

Emmett and Jasper pelted Edward with questions about the team and he occasionally deferred to me for answers, though I didn't know why. I was bouncing back and forth between the conversations quite well until I answered a question Rosalie asked me with some random fact about the Nationals.

"Bella! Come on," Alice tugged me closer to the end of the table where she and Rose were sitting. "Please pay attention. There are less than two weeks left. You did get someone to cover you next weekend, right?"

I nodded. "Mmhmm, Eric said that he had an intern and whoever took my old job covering everything. I've got the entire weekend off. Edward has to work Friday, but he's off Saturday and Sunday so he'll be there for the wedding and brunch the next day."

"Good. Oh, I wonder what they're talking about now," Alice said, gesturing to the guys.

The three of them sat with their heads close together, their voices barely above a whisper.

_Not so sure I like the look on Edward's face right now._

* * *

**EPOV**

"I need your help," I said, dropping my voice to a whisper.

Emmett's eyes widened. "You didn't do anything to Bella, did you? I've known her forever and I owe meeting my future wife to her. I'll kill you if you hurt her."

"No you dolt, I didn't _do_ anything to her," I snapped. 

_Well I've __**done**__ things to her, but you don't need to know about that._

"What do you need help with Edward?" Jasper asked. I could hear the curiosity in his voice, but his face was perfectly composed.

"I want to do something special for Bella. We both have the night of the wedding off and I know she got a room at the hotel where the reception is so I was thinking that I might do something romantic for her. I want to make a grand gesture, the kind that I can't make when we're on the road."

"That's easy!" Emmett said. "Roses, bubble bath, champagne, the works."

"Bella doesn't seem like a roses girls to me," Jasper said, "but I completely understand where you're coming from, Em. I think that if you slip out of the reception a bit early to set up a nice bubble bath with champagne and something like chocolate covered strawberries, you'll be a complete hit."

"No, that's too typical," I said.

"What do you mean that's too typical?" Emmett asked. "I did that for Rosie once and she was putty in my hands."

"But Rosalie and Bella are two completely different women. Rosalie will fall for all that typical crap. Bella won't," I said pointedly.

"He does have a point," Jasper said. "Hmm, things that Bella will find romantic." He tapped his finger against his temple.

"I was thinking of slipping her a few song lyrics in the next couple of weeks. I found this place where I can make fortune cookies, so I figured I could get some made with specific lyrics that I think she might like and sneak them to her. I also think I could write lyrics on the mirror in the hotel room of her bathrooms in Philadelphia and New York with soap or something, so she can read them when the mirror fogs up during showers."

I didn't want to tell them about the lyrics that I was thinking of using because it was a way for me to show Bella my feelings without coming right out and telling her. I knew she was smart; my hope was that she'd figure out what I was trying to say without freaking out.

* * *

"Chinese food, Edward? Didn't we just have Chinese last week?" Bella asked.

"Yes, but I'm really in the mood for Kung Pao Chicken, spring rolls, Shrimp Lo Mein, maybe an egg roll or two - "

"Should I just buy stock in this restaurant? You're going to eat your weight and mine tonight if you order all of that stuff." She raised an eyebrow at me and pulled the menu out of a drawer in my kitchen.

I grabbed my phone and dialed the number to place our order.

"Ohh, I want Moo Goo Gai Pan and Orange Chicken," Bella called from the living room.

I tacked those on to my order and strolled in to the living room to find Bella sorting through my DVDs.

"You really should organize these better. I would've figured you for an alphabetical kind of guy."

"They are in alphabetical order. By color. See, I started with white and progressed through the color spectrum to black."

She stared at me for a minute before giggling. "You really are a neat freak son of a bitch. Truer words..."

"Shush. What do you want to watch tonight?"

"I don't know, what do you want to watch?"

I rolled my eyes. "Are we really going to start this game? Let's narrow it down. TV or movie?"

"Doesn't matter to me, Edward. We're probably not going to see whatever it is anyway," she said with a smirk.

"Just for that, I'm cutting you off tonight _and_ I'm turning my phone back on," I fired back, reaching for my pocket.

"Oh no you don't, mister. Fine. TV," she huffed.

"Okay. Entourage it is." I grabbed the remote off of the coffee table and started flipping through channels.

"No way. We're watching Gilmore Girls."

"Baby, I am not watching Gilmore Girls."

"You told me to pick something. I pick TV and Gilmore Girls."

"No, I told you to pick TV or movie. You chose TV. I get to pick which show we're watching."

"Edward, don't do this to me. I don't want to watch Entourage. Jeremy Piven squicks me out. Will you agree to The Big Bang Theory?"

I pretended to think about it in a lame attempt to drag out her exasperation. I forced a sigh. "I _suppose_ I could watch that. Sheldon is probably one of the most underrated characters on TV right now anyway."

"Fabulous." She snatched the remote out of my hand and started going through my DVR. "You set up a series recording for Supernatural? You're such a geek," she teased.

I settled down on the couch and wrapped my arm around her. We got through the first episode of the new season before the doorbell rang. I jumped up and ran to the door before Bella could argue with me about paying for the food.

I walked everything into the kitchen and grabbed the fortune cookies out of the bag.I took one and pulled another from my pocket, plated our food and walked back into the living room.

"Dessert first?" I asked, handing her one of the cookies.

"I love fortune cookies!" she exclaimed.

"As if I didn't realize that last week when you wouldn't let me have any of them_,_" I said with a grin.

"I let you have one," she snapped. "And the one in your hand may be the only one you get tonight if you don't behave."

She quickly opened the cookie and I smiled when she read the "fortune" I'd had printed on the slip of paper, her eyebrows furrowing together before her face lit up with a smile.

"You did this," she said. "How did you do this? I love this song."

"What's it say?" I asked. I'd had half a dozen cookies made and wasn't sure which one she'd gotten.

"And I wonder when, when I sing along with you if everything could ever feel this real forever," she said softly. "It's Everlong by the Foo Fighters."

I smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

* * *

**BPOV**

If I didn't know better, I would think Edward was trying to tell me something. Over the next week, I got three more fortune cookies.

_You are all I hope for, all I worship and adore. _Fly Me to the Moon ("Frank Sinatra's version, of course," Edward told me.)  
_  
If you would leave it would be a crying shame_. Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas.

_My lonely days are over and life is like a song._ At Last by Etta James

He'd also written a few things on the mirrors in my hotel rooms in Philadelphia and New York. We'd had a little spat in Philadelphia about sharing a room on these trips and that night after the game, the steam from my shower revealed Saves the Day lyrics to me - _I'm too stupid to be aware of the beauty that you give this place and how shitty this town would seem without you in it._

The next night in New York, it was John Mayer. _I want to live in the center of a circle, I want to live on the side of a square.  
_  
I'd just returned to my room after another long day in New York and taken a shower to find Van Morrison lyrics on the mirror. _Sometime I'm overcome thinking 'bout making love in the green grass behind the stadium with you, my brown eyed girl._

I sighed and smiled like the girl that I am, wondering what was coming next when my phone jerked me out of my day dream. "Edward Cullen, you are a sneaky bastard."

"I am that." I could hear his smile in his voice. "Do you have any plans tonight?"

_Confessing my love for you. _"Not really. I need to get some work done. You?"

_This conversation is ridiculous. There is a door between your rooms that you should open. You should open it and have your way with him. Or let him have his way with you. Work can wait._

"I was hoping for a little phones off time with you tonight," he said with a small sigh. "This is ridiculous Bella. We should just share a room."

_He is__** not **__starting this argument again._

"You know we can't do that, Edward."

"Fine. I'll forget to book a room for myself next time around. Oops, guess I'll just have to stay with you." I heard him knocking on the door between our rooms. "Let me in, Baby. Please?"

"I can't. I need to get some work done."

He knocked harder. "Come on, Bella. I'll just watch TV while you work. You won't even know I'm in the room."

_Not fucking likely. You're begging and whiny. Not attractive at all, Edward. I'm also terrified that I might slip and tell you that I love you thanks to the lyrics you've been torturing me with this past week._

"I really can't. I have to get this article written up and sent to Eric tonight. I'm already an hour past deadline."

The knocking ceased and I could hear him fumbling around with something over the phone. "Fine. Would you open the door for Lloyd Dobler?"

I faintly heard the strains of Peter Gabriel playing over the phone and when I moved closer to the door it was louder. I flung the door open to see Edward standing with a boom box over one shoulder, grinning from ear to ear.

"You have got to be kidding me," I said as I dropped the phone and flung myself into his arms. "This might be the corniest thing anyone has ever done for me."

_Screw the article__ and screw the fact that five minutes ago you were whining to the point of irritating me. _

"Phones off. You're mine tonight," I said before kissing him hard on the mouth.  


* * *

**I may be guilty of organizing my DVDs the way that Aceward does. What? It looks pretty. **

**Thanks to the usual suspects on Twitter, who indulge me when I admit to being lazy and ask for suggestions on things like TV shows and movies.**

**The second round of voting has started in the Naughty Heels Anonymous O/S challenge. There are some really great stories entered; please go read and vote. www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/~naughtyheelsanonymouscontest.**

**I'm on a newficbargo, but WriteOnTime & AngryBadgerGirl broke me of that – You really should be reading **_**Breaking News**_** and **_**The Naked Guy Upstairs.**_

**One last thing – if you don't have me on author alert or don't follow me on Twitter, you may not have seen that I posted a new story. It's called **_**The Kübler Ross Model**_** and I'd like to think it's something that hasn't been done in the Twilight fandom. If you're up for it, please read and review. I'm rather attached to it, but will warn you **_**I**_** cried while writing it. It's definitely not wussperv approved. **

**Thanks, lovelies. As always, reviews are appreciated.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Usual thanks to Katie & Trin, my super betas. (No matter what Trin says, she is **_**so**_** far from a gamma.)**

**Usual disclaimer to say that I don't own Twilight or anything else that is publicly recognizable. Blah blah blah.

* * *

**I woke up with a wine headache. The alarm was blaring, reminding me that I really didn't have a choice about getting out of bed today.

Edward's arm snaked around my waist and he buried his face in my hair, mumbling something about not wanting to get out of bed. "Let's just stay here all day. Rosalie doesn't _really_ need you to trip down the aisle for her today, does she?"

"I do not want to tempt the wrath of Rosalie. Or Alice for that matter. I'm pretty sure there's some Tylenol in the medicine cabinet. Would you mind getting it for me while you're up?" I asked as Edward stood and headed for the bathroom.

I heard him fumbling around in the medicine cabinet followed by a bang and the unmistakable sound of a bottle pills clattering to the floor. "You okay in there, baby?"

"I'm fine. Your medicine cabinet may not be able to say the same in a few minutes," he grumbled. I heard him turn on the shower.

_Mmm, naked Edward just a few feet away. No. No, no, no. You cannot have naughty fun times with Edward this morning. Maybe tonight, after the reception. It's only fourteen hours away._

He cracked the door and his hand flicked out to toss me the bottle of Tylenol. I caught it, then sighed heavily and snuggled further into the bed. "Don't hog all the hot water, please!" I called through the door.

"Wouldn't dream of it. Any chance you want to be eco friendly and conserve water with me this morning?"

_I would love nothing more. _"I can't. I've got to drag my lazy ass out of this bed and go see what Alice needs help with."

"Suit yourself, Sarah Palin."

"Asshole."

"You love me."

_Hot naked man in my shower say what?_ "Right. Compare me to a media whore who attacks innocent dogs with her shitty analogies. Slick, Edward. Shut up and shower."

I grabbed my robe from the floor and wrapped it around myself as I opened my bedroom door. I was met by a bundle of energy wearing an Alice suit.

"Thank _god_ you're up Bella. Rose called. The florist screwed the flowers up and we need to get down there to handle it. Can you get a quick shower and go down there with me?"

"Sure, Alice," I said, wincing at the level of her voice. "Um, Edward's in my shower and we'll get no where fast if I go join him. Can I use yours?"

Alice sighed and waved her hand in the direction of her room. I padded into her bathroom and jumped in shock and horror when I saw Jasper's naked form standing on the bath mat, toweling off.

"Oh my god, Jasper. I'm _so_ sorry!" I slapped a hand over my eyes and felt along the wall for the door. "Just let me know when you're done, okay?"

He chuckled. "No Bella, it's my fault. I'm sure Alice assumed I was done in here." I heard the towel moving around. "All covered. Your eyes are perfectly safe," he said and I could hear the amusement in his voice.

I shook my head. "Uh uh. Close the door behind you when you leave, please."

There was a bit of shuffling then I heard the door click shut. I uncovered my eyes and heaved a sigh of relief when I realized there was no one else in the room with me. I showered quickly, toweled off and wrapped my robe around my body again.

Alice yelled something that sounded an awful lot like "Move your ass, Swan," at me as I rushed into my bedroom to get dressed. I groaned at the sight of the track suits Alice had insisted Rosalie buy for us to wear today, with the word bridesmaid written across the ass. Ours were a deep red to match the dresses we'd eventually wear, and Rosalie had one that was white. I guess being a bride had it's perks as "The Future Mrs. McCarty" was written on the back of the jacket instead of across her ass.

After I clothed myself in the atrocity, I fluffed my hair and walked into the kitchen. Alice, Jasper and Edward were standing around munching on some fresh fruit and my face immediately flushed the same shade as my track suit when my eyes met Jasper's.

"What's wrong Bella?" Edward asked. His voice was full of concern and my face only grew hotter.

"Nothing," I mumbled, grabbing an apple. "Alice, are you ready to go?"

The ride to the florist's was quiet. I knew that Alice was aware of my encounter with Jasper, but she was nice enough to not mention it. She allowed me to get lost in my thoughts, thoughts that were so damn confusing.

"Alice? When did you know that you were in love with Jasper?" I blurted out as she pulled her car into a spot near the florist shop.

"You're in love with Edward, aren't you? I just knew it, Bella!" Alice squealed.

"Yes. Maybe. I don't know," I said. "That's why I'm asking when you knew you were in love with Jasper."

"The moment I met him," she said matter of factly. "Jasper and I are soul mates. I told him so that night you caught us, ahem, hanging art in my room."

"I _knew_ you weren't hanging new artwork in there. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to know what you were doing, but shit Alice. It was the second time you'd ever seen him."

"I know, but I just knew. I fully expected him to run screaming, but he just accepted it. He was very calm about the whole thing, actually," she said thoughtfully. "Have you told Edward how you feel?"

"God, no. It's not that I don't want to. I think that he feels the same way, but I can't be sure. I don't want to put myself out there without knowing."

"Well what makes you think he feels the same way?" Alice asked as she pulled open the door to the florist's.

"Little things. He keeps leaving me song lyrics in fortune cookies and written in soap on my mirror when we're on road trips." I sighed happily.

"What lyrics? I know you know all the songs he used, so tell me. It'll help me figure this out," she said.

I opened my mouth to tell her, closing it when she cornered one of the employees in the small shop and demanding that they fix the mistake with Rosalie's flowers. The poor girl looked terrified and quickly complied with Alice's..._request._

When the flower situation was resolved - they would be delivering new flowers to the Jefferson Memorial within the hour - Alice turned to face me. "What lyrics, Bella?

"Everlong, Fly Me to the Moon, Smooth, At Last, Hold, Home Life and Brown Eyed Girl," I said, ticking off each one on my fingers. "Do you need to know the artists, too?"

Alice's eyes widened. "No, and I'm saying this emphatically. The man is in love with you."

"You think?"

"I know."

* * *

After a mani, pedi, hair and makeup appointment, the three of us were ready to go. Alice and I helped Rosalie into her gown, both of us oohing and aahhhing over how amazing she looked in it.

"You look lovely, dear," Mrs. Hale said absent-mindedly. I hadn't expected her to be involved in getting ready with us, but she _was_ the mother of the bride and she seemed to be at least feigning interest in her daughter's wedding day. I suspected there was a hefty amount of vodka at work, but I couldn't be sure.

"Thanks, mother," Rosalie gushed. Rose was always beautiful, but today she was positively radiant.

We all posed for pictures, individually and with Rosalie, before the ceremony. One of Emmett's groomsmen delivered a gift to Rose. The card said they were to be her 'something blue' and she teared up when she opened the small jeweler's box to reveal a beautiful pair of sapphire earrings. Rosalie looked to Mrs. Hale for approval before removing the pearl earrings she'd been wearing and replacing them with Emmett's gift.

Alice was tasked with delivering Emmett's gift to him. The package was small, just a card really, and after Alice left I asked Rose what she'd given him.

"It's a gift certificate for a year's worth of all the premium ESPN channels," she said with a shrug. "It just seemed like the thing to do."

I nodded and smiled, a brief thought of what I might purchase for Edward on our wedding day crossing my mind. _Wait, what? I'm thinking about us getting married? No. Stop.  
_  
There was a knock on the door and Mr. Hale stuck his head in. "It's time, sweetheart."

Rosalie's smile grew wider and we left the hotel room for the limo that was taking us to the Jefferson Memorial.

* * *

The ceremony was beautiful and so were Rosalie and Emmett. They'd written their own vows, in which Emmett promised to love Rosalie even if she ever distracted him from playoff baseball and Rosalie promised not to get too angry if Emmett didn't pick his dirty socks up from the bedroom floor. I managed to make it up and down the aisle without tripping over my own feet, thanks in large part my escort Jared.

My eyes were locked on Edward's through the entire ceremony and his smile grew wider when the minister declared that Emmett could kiss his bride. I made a mental note to ask him about it.

The photographer was really great throughout the entire picture process and Emmett's old water polo buddies, Jared and Max, kept Alice and me in stitches with the jokes they told at Emmett's expense. Jasper and Edward had gone back to the hotel where the reception was being held because Alice and I would be riding with Jared and Max. The Hales had sprung for two limos to take the six of us back to the hotel. I thought it was one of their better ideas, because it gave Rosalie and Emmett time to enjoy each other before they were pulled in a thousand different directions by their guests.

Max popped open a bottle of champagne for us and we all toasted the happy couple numerous times on the short ride to the reception. I was beyond tipsy by the time we arrived, and clung to Jared's arm when we were introduced to the crowd. I saw Edward in the crowd and his eyes flashed with a touch of jealousy until I stumbled and Jared had to grab my arm to keep me from falling on my ass.

Rosalie and Emmett had already left by the time I was able to dance with Edward. He was singing along softly with the song that was playing, _I Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You_ by Tom Waits, and holding me close. His hand rested on my lower back, his thumb drawing slow circles and he leaned down to sing the final line in my ear. My face flushed, my heart started beating faster and my knees grew weak.

"I think we should leave," I mumbled into his neck.

He nodded to me and we made our way over to Jasper and Alice and said our goodbyes. We walked out into the lobby and as I headed for the door, he pulled me back by the hand.

"I booked a room," he said with a goofy smile on his face.

"Lead the way," I said with a grin.

When we stepped into the elevator, Edward pulled my back flush with his chest and secured his arms around my waist. He lowered his head to my neck, kissing and licking along it.

My stomach was in knots. I knew, without a doubt, that I was in love with him and I wanted nothing more than to tell him. I sucked in a deep breath when he nipped at the hollow just behind my ear and decided that I was just going to go for it.

"Edward, I - "

"I love you Bella. I love you so much," he interrupted.

I gasped, unsure whether I was pleased he said it first, or pissed he'd beat me to it.

* * *

**So…Edward said it. Bella wants to say it. What do you think is waiting for Bella in the hotel room? **

**I want to let you know that there are only one or two more chapters of this story left. Aceward is near and dear to my heart and I can't drag him out unnecessarily. **

**Thanks to the usual suspects on Twitter. I don't know what I'd do without you ladies. (Let's be honest – I'd spend more time cleaning my house and a lot less time looking at porn. I wouldn't trade you for anything in the world!)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I started this story with no true betas (Thank you, Project Team Beta for doing the first few chapters for me) and through pure fangirling alone, found two of the best people in the fandom who wanted to beta for me. Katie & Trin, Aceward wouldn't have made it this far without you two. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. **

**I don't own Twilight or anything else that is publicly recognizable. Blah blah blah.**

**I am participating in the Fandom Gives Back author auction. You can find all the information you need at www(dot)thefandomgivesback(dot)com. Sign up for the forums and take a chance at bidding on the o/s I've offered up. I say it's going to be no more than 4,000 words, but the more you bid, the chattier my characters get. Just sayin'. ;)  


* * *

**She looked so beautiful in the dress she was wearing, her eyes were on me through the entire ceremony and when we finally got to dance together, it was to one of my favorite Tom Waits songs. I sang it to her softly, dropping my head to whisper the final line in her ear.

After Bella told me she thought we should leave, I pulled out my phone to discreetly send a text off to Frank, the hotel employee who'd helped me set up the room earlier, while Bella was getting ready with Alice and Rosalie.

I'd completely caved to the ideas Jasper and Emmett had given me. By the time we arrived in the room, there would be an open bottle of champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting near the tub in the bathroom, which Frank had filled with a scented bubbled bath.

In a move very typical of me, I blurted out that I loved her. Probably not my finest moment, but I couldn't _not_ say it. She gasped and stiffened in my arms, but I was relieved when she didn't pull away. I slid my hands down to her hips and pressed lightly on one of them, turning her to face me.

"I'm sorry, Bella. This isn't the way I wanted to tell you. I just couldn't help myself. You're beautiful and incredible and I just need you to know how I feel."

"Would you shut up and let me enjoy the moment? It's not every day a guy declares that he loves you for the first time," she teased.

My stomach twisted into knots. _Does she mean...Could she possibly feel the same way?_

Her arms wrapped around my waist and she buried her face in my neck. "I'm really glad you got a room," she whispered. "I have a feeling I wouldn't have been able to wait until we got to your place."

I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and hummed happily. Admittedly, I was a touch nervous. I'd declared my feelings for her and she hadn't said anything back. Of course thinking that she'd say it back to me was a complete idiot move and I wanted to kick myself for even hoping.

The elevator dinged as we reached the seventh floor and I kept my arms wrapped around her as I walked forward. "We're just down the hall."

I pulled the room key out of my pocket, opened the door and stepped back to let her enter first.

"Oh my...Edward, this is amazing," she said quietly. Her eyes were wide as she took in the sight of rose petals on the bed and candles burning all over the room. "When did you do this?"

"I had some help from a friend," I said with a smile. "I know it's Rose and Emmett's day, but I wanted tonight to be yours."

"Edward Cullen, you are a hopeless romantic," she teased with a smile.

"Guilty as charged." I took my jacket off and loosened my tie. "There's more in the bathroom," I said, nudging the door open with my foot. I smiled when I saw that Frank had done everything I'd asked and more. The champagne was open, the strawberries were on a tray and a dozen roses were in a beautiful vase on the counter. The tub was full of suds and I could see steam rising off of the water.

Bella was removing her jewelery as she walked toward me with a small smile playing on her lips. "What else did you do?" Her smile grew wider when she looked into the bathroom. "Wow."

We took our time undressing each other. I stepped into the tub first, holding out a hand to help her in after I sat down. She settled between my legs with her back resting against my chest and we relaxed together in near silence, talking quietly while sipping the champagne and feeding each other the strawberries, until the water grew cool around us.

We stepped from the tub and gently toweled each other off. Her eyes shined with tears. One slipped down her cheek and I brushed it away.

"Bella, are you okay?"

"Perfect, Edward. I'm perfect," she said, reaching up to wrap her arms around my neck. She pulled my face down to hers and kissed me softly. She pulled back ever so slightly, her forehead resting against mine and whispered against my lips, "I never knew it could be like this. I love you."

I broke into a wide grin and picked her up, twirling her around. My heart soared and in that moment, I knew she was it for me. There wouldn't ever be anyone who held my attention the way she did. I never wanted to be with anyone else.

"I don't want to be with anyone else either," she sighed into my hair. I hadn't even realized I'd said it aloud.

I set her back down on the floor and took my time kissing her, caressing her bare skin and enjoying the feel of her under my hands. Her body reacted to me in ways that always made me smile and I knew that I would spend every day of the rest of my life relishing in this.

I laid her down on the bed and sat back on my heels to look at her. Her eyes were shining in the candle light, her hair was splayed out on the pillow and for the first time, she didn't blush as my eyes roamed her body.

I lay down beside her, watching her as she ran her hands across my arms, chest, back, neck - anywhere she could reach. Her eyes followed her hands and a small smile tugged at her mouth. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

I shook my head with a chuckle. "Normally being called beautiful would strike me as odd. But coming from you..." I sighed happily. "That's the second best thing I've heard all day," I teased.

I pulled her close to me and took my time kissing her. When I finally came up for air, her hands and mouth were all over me, touching me, loving me and making me feel a bliss that I'd never felt before. We made slow, sweet love to one another and though we'd been intimate for months, this night felt like the first time.

Hours later, she fell asleep with her head on my chest and arms in a vice grip around my torso. I watched as she slept and thought back to the day I met her. She came into my life like a tornado and I would forever be grateful. She shifted against me and sighed quietly in her sleep, my name falling from her lips. I drifted off to sleep, content to know that I'd never have to sleep without her again.

* * *

**There you have it. Clicking complete might have been the hardest thing I've done so far with this story. **

**I want to thank each and every one of you who has gone on this journey with me. Thank you for the reads, reviews, rec's, PMs, notes of appreciation, everything. I was very nervous getting back into the world of fanfic, but I'm so glad I did.**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you. **


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